Rhinecliff, NY (RHI)

455 Rhinecliff Road
Rhinecliff, NY 12574

Station Hours

Annual Ticket Revenue (FY 2023): $8,404,944
Annual Station Ridership (FY 2023): 203,629

• Ownerships
• Routes Served
• Contact
• Local Community Links

• Facility Ownership: Amtrak
• Parking Lot Ownership: Amtrak/CSX Transportation
• Platform Ownership: CSX Transportation
• Track Ownership: CSX Transportation

• Adirondack
• Berkshire Flyer (summer season)
• Ethan Allen Express
• Empire Service
• Maple Leaf

Jane Brophy
Regional Contact
governmentaffairsnyc@amtrak.com
For information about Amtrak fares and schedules, please visit Amtrak.com or call 1-800-USA-RAIL (1-800-872-7245).

• Town of Rhinebeck
• Amtrak Northeast Corridor
• New York by Rail

The Rhinecliff station was built for the New York Central Railroad in 1914. The light-colored brick and stone exterior is punctuated by soaring arched windows; paired brackets support the deep eaves of a red clay barrel-tiled hipped roof. The station clings to the bluff above the Hudson River and uses many levels and stairways, some interior and some exterior, as well as a covered bridge over the tracks for foot traffic. At one time there were four tracks along the Hudson through Rhinecliff. Today, only the former southbound tracks and platforms are used, and the former northbound tracks provide a long, narrow parking area. The interior uses much brick and polished wood and provides a lovely view over the Hudson River.

Under the Federal-State Partnership for State of Good Repair Program overseen by the Federal Railroad Administration, in 2022 the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) was awarded up to $28.2 million to fund final design and construction of a new high-level platform – where the platform surface is level with the floor of a passenger rail car – at the Rhinecliff station. It will replace an existing low-level platform that is in disrepair. The grant will also fund new passenger circulation and access to the platform including stairs, elevators and a pedestrian bridge. South of the station, a new interlocking will provide increased operational flexibility for train service. NYSDOT will provide a 30% funding match for the project.

The Rhinebeck area, which includes the town and village of Rhinebeck, the hamlet of Rhinecliff, and the city of Kingston, is one of the oldest European-settled areas of New York State. In 1686, five Dutchmen from Kingston, which lies directly across the Hudson, traded for the property with three Native Americans, acquiring 2,200 acres with four miles of waterfront. At the north was the ancient trail that led west through the Delaware Water Gap and east into New England. The southern boundary was the Landsman Kill (stream) which provided fine mill sites. While not ideal farmland, the purchase was an ideal transportation hub. Hendrickus and Jacobus Kip moved to become residents, and hence the entire tract was first known as Kipsbergen. Jacob Beekman, a businessman from New York, bought up land surrounding Kipsbergen, and his property developed separately from the waterfront Kipsbergen, which maintained its ties to Kingston. Even today, members of the original Dutch families still occupy the area.

In 1737, the British established the precinct of Rhyn Bec and included Kipsbergen in its boundaries. In 1849, Charles H. Russell of New York City moved both the ferry and the new railroad depot somewhat south of the original Kip tracts and began to develop the area. The Hudson River Railroad made its first stop in Kipsbergen in 1852, providing fast year-round transportation to other parts of the state in addition to the longstanding ferry service to Kingston. The name was then changed to Rhinecliff. During this period Russell built the Rhinecliff Hotel, still in business today, having been much-restored.

Rhinecliff is on a part of the Hudson that is lined with large, beautiful estates, many built in the mid-1800s by prominent New Yorkers such as Elizabeth Shermerhorn Jones and William B. Astor, providing seasonal employment for the Rhinecliff residents. The Rhinebeck and Connecticut Railroad, started in 1872, carried coal to New England and commodities to growing industries, such as Baker’s Chocolate in nearby Red Hook. In the 1890s, when Rhinebeck became the greenhouse-grown violet capital of the world, Rhinecliff was its shipping center. In 1912, the four-tracking of the railroad was begun, and the older station abandoned in favor of the current one built one block north and east. The pedestrian and vehicular overpasses built at that time provided access to the ferry without the dangerous grade crossing of the previous depot.

Rhinecliff, which is built almost vertically up the slate Hudson bluff, has largely resisted the growth of nearby Rhinebeck or Kingston, with which it still retains close ties. Daily life in Rhinecliff, however, changed profoundly when in 1957 the ferry was replaced by the two-lane Rhinecliff-Kingston Bridge a little to the north of the hamlet. In the 1960s, a town improvement committee formed to fix up the decaying dock and depot area. The entire community is listed in the National Register of Historic Places as a contributor to the Hudson River National Historic Landmark District (added to the Register in 1990). The station itself is not listed on the Register separately. The station’s popularity continues to grow, as Rhinecliff has been rediscovered and embraced by an emerging arts community.

Close to Rhinecliff, in nearby Red Hook, Bard College was founded in 1860 as Saint Stephen’s, in association with the New York City leadership of the Episcopal Church. In 1928, the college became an undergraduate school of Columbia University, and in 1934 the name was changed to honor John Bard, who had donated the Chapel of the Holy Innocents and part of his estate of Annandale to found the college. Bard has long been renowned for its emphasis on the place of the fine and performing arts in a liberal education. Today, its performance, fine, and decorative arts curricula have extended to graduate studies.

Empire Service trains are supported by funds made available by the New York State Department of Transportation. The Ethan Allen Express is financed primarily through funds made available by the Vermont Agency of Transportation and NYSDOT. The seasonal Berkshire Flyer (July-September) is supported by funds made available by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation and NYSDOT.

Station Building (with waiting room)