Adirondack

The Adirondack is Amtrak's train between New York and Montreal, once a day in each direction: 381 miles from Moynihan Train Hall to Montreal's Central Station, in about twelve hours going north and eleven coming back. Its day has a simple shape. All morning it runs up the east bank of the Hudson; all afternoon it follows the west shore of Lake Champlain, between the lake and the Adirondack Mountains; and in the evening it crosses into Canada and over the St. Lawrence on the Victoria Bridge, opened in 1859 as the first bridge across the river.

Most of the way it runs on old Delaware & Hudson track, the line built for the D&H along the lake to Plattsburgh in 1875 and used for its own Montreal trains until Amtrak took over in 1971. Amtrak brought the service back as the Adirondack in August 1974, with New York State paying towards it, as it still does. Between Saratoga Springs and the border it is a train for small lake towns — Ticonderoga, Port Henry, Westport — as much as for the two cities at either end.

It is a day train with Coach seats and a café car, not a sleeper, and the border is part of the ride: customs and immigration stop the train at Lacolle going north and at Rouses Point coming south.

Train 69 leaves Moynihan Train Hall at 08:15 and runs up Manhattan's West Side through the Empire Connection, then along the east bank of the Hudson. The Palisades rise across the water at Yonkers; north of Peekskill the river narrows into the Hudson Highlands, with the stone buildings of West Point on the far side and the ruin of Bannerman's Castle on Pollepel Island just off the near one. Two tunnels under Breakneck Ridge face Storm King Mountain, and then the valley opens out past Poughkeepsie, Rhinecliff and Hudson to Albany–Rensselaer.

Saratoga and the lake

From Schenectady the train turns north onto the old D&H main line to Saratoga Springs, the spa town that grew rich on its mineral springs and its racing, and on through Fort Edward to Whitehall, at the southern end of Lake Champlain. At first the lake is a narrow, reedy channel between wooded ridges, and the line follows it in and out of rock cuts to Ticonderoga. From Crown Point and Port Henry north it widens to miles across, with Vermont on the far side; the train keeps to the New York shore through Westport to Plattsburgh, with Burlington across the water one of the two largest towns on the lake.

Into Canada

Rouses Point is the last stop in the United States. Over the border the train stops at Lacolle, for Canadian customs and immigration, and then runs north on Canadian National's line, slowly — the timetable allows three hours and twenty-five minutes from Rouses Point to Saint-Lambert. From Saint-Lambert it crosses the St. Lawrence on the Victoria Bridge, about 2 km long on 24 ice-breaking piers, with the railway down the middle and the road on either side, and reaches Central Station at 20:16. Southbound, train 68 leaves Montreal at 11:10, and the United States inspection is at Rouses Point.

The train itself

The Adirondack is a short train of Amfleet I coaches built by Budd between the mid-1970s and early 1980s, with a café car and no business class. Out of New York it is pulled by a GE P32AC-DM, a dual-mode locomotive that runs on third-rail electricity in the Penn Station tunnels and on diesel outside them; at Albany a diesel-only GE P42DC "Genesis" takes over for the rest of the way. Amtrak plans to replace both with its new Airo trains.

The Adirondack runs once a day in each direction, every day of the year: train 69 north from New York in the morning, train 68 south from Montreal late in the morning. A reservation is required, and the booking asks for your travel document, because the train crosses the border.

Good to know:

• The border takes time. Northbound, Canadian customs and immigration stop the train at Lacolle; southbound, United States inspection is at Rouses Point. The timetable allows for it — three hours and twenty-five minutes from Rouses Point to Saint-Lambert going north — and Amtrak warns that delays at the border are beyond its control. In Montreal, arrive at least 30 minutes before departure.
• Summer has been the weak season. In 2023 and 2024 the train was cut back short of Montreal from late May or June until September, because of heat restrictions and track work on Canadian National's line in Quebec. In 2025 and 2026 it ran through to Montreal in the summer. If you are travelling between June and September, check Amtrak's service alerts before you go.
• The times move. Amtrak's timetable is generated for a single date rather than a season; the times above are from the one for 2 October 2026. Check your own date.
• Bicycles can be carried on board only between New York and Rouses Point, not into Canada.

Times as of October 2026, from Amtrak's published timetable for 2 October 2026. Confirm before travelling on amtrak.com (opens in a new tab).

The Adirondack is Coach Class only — there is no business class and no sleeper — every passenger needs a reservation, and the fare depends on the date and on which fare you choose. Sampling Amtrak's booking engine on 2 October 2026 for one adult, New York to Montreal on Monday 12 October, gave a Value fare of $72 and a Flex fare of $82, the Flex fully refundable before departure.

When you book, Amtrak asks for your date of birth, citizenship and the travel document you will carry, and passes it to the border officers in advance; bring the same document on the day. Fares checked October 2026 at amtrak.com (opens in a new tab); US dollars, one way.

Interrail and Eurail do not apply in the United States or Canada. The pass that does is Amtrak's own USA Rail Pass: $499 for 10 segments over 30 days, in Coach. Amtrak's list of the trains it does not cover — the Acela, the Auto Train, the Maple Leaf at its Canadian stations, and one series of Thruway buses — does not include the Adirondack. A segment is one boarding and one alighting, the pass works only on Sale and Value fares, and each segment has to be booked through Amtrak before you board.

For the Adirondack alone it is not worth buying. New York to Montreal sampled at $72 in Coach, about a seventh of the pass price. It pays only when this train is one leg of a longer Amtrak loop.

Checked October 2026 against amtrak.com/tickets/departure-rail-pass (opens in a new tab).

The Adirondack runs once a day each way, so breaking the journey means a night off the train and a new reservation for the next day's departure. Northbound, Albany and Saratoga Springs come at midday and the lake towns in the afternoon; southbound, the same places pass in the afternoon and evening. The places below run from south to north, ending in Montreal.

The obvious place to stay at the Montreal end is beside the station itself: the Queen Elizabeth was built by Canadian National next to Central Station and has a direct connection to it, so the walk from the train to the lobby is a short one. Along the line, Saratoga Springs makes the natural break — the train calls there at lunchtime going north and in the early evening coming south — and the Gideon Putnam sits inside the state park, among the springs.

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