Trains to the New York State Fair would work … except …

I appreciate the New York State Fair. It’s my summertime happy place, where I can submit my crafts and photos for competition, I can eat wacky Franken-food, and I can feel like there’s not a care in the world.

Traveling to the New York State Fair from Albany, however, does bring a series of options. I can drive there, it’s about a 2 1/2 hour trip. I can take one of those shuttle busses from Yankee Trails, which I’ve done in the past.

Or I could take the train to the Fairgrounds.

Every year at Fair time, Amtrak adjusts its route so that instead of their trains pulling into Syracuse proper (the Syracuse Regional Transport Center, station SYR), the train actually pulls up to the entrance of the State Fairgrounds (Amtrak designated station NYF). So theoretically, I could park my car at the Albany train station, ride to Syracuse, do all the fun thinks, then hop on the train and head home.

Which would be great … except …

The schedules for arrival and departure from the Fairgrounds station leave a LOT to the imagination.

Let’s say I want to travel on a Saturday. There are three Amtrak trains whose routes go from Albany to the Fairgrounds – departures at 10:10 a.m. (1:12 p.m. arrival), departure at 1:15 p.m. (4:22 p.m. arrival), and departure at 4:10 p.m. (7:14 p.m. arrival).

That’s my options from Albany. But after the Fair … how do I get home?

There are two trains with scheduled departures from the Fairgrounds to Albany … one departure at 9:32 a.m. (arrival in Albany at 12:39 p.m.), and departure at 2:52 p.m. (arrival in Albany at 6:27 p.m.).

Mind you … there’s no hotels or lodgings on the Fairgrounds. So my options for using Amtrak to get to and from the Fairgrounds from Albany are limited to the 10:10 a.m. departure from Albany, arriving at the Fairgrounds at 1:12 p.m., then leaving the Fair 90 minutes later to return home.

And that’s not taking into account nay possible travel or train delays. Yeesh.

Now if I’m coming from Buffalo … the travel schedule is more appealing. One could leave Buffalo’s DePew station at 7:19 a.m. and arrive at the Fairgrounds at 9:32 a.m., spend the day at the Fair, and leave at 4:22 p.m. for a 6:54 p.m. arrival in Buffalo (or if you’re really enjoying your time at the Fair, there’s a 7:14 p.m. departure to arrive at Buffalo at 9:41 p.m).

So this schedule works well if you’re coming from Buffalo or Rochester or Niagara Falls or somewhere in Western New York.

Traveling to the Fairgrounds via Amtrak from New York City or Albany, however … no soy bueno. And heaven forbid you bring the family and someone decides to lolly-gag on a ride or at an exhibition, and you miss that one train back to Albany or to NYC. Yikes.

Now I can’t really fault Amtrak or the Fair personnel for this. You can’t just automatically add trains on a track. Those tracks are not only used by Amtrak, but also by CPKC and other rail companies. And it also has to be financially feasible to add more trains for a route like this. Especially for the week and a half that the Fair operates.

So if you’re coming in from Western New York … yeah, riding the rails to the Fairgrounds is kinda cool.

Just have a backup plan if you’re thinking about doing the same from Albany.

Fair enough?

Yeah, you saw what I did there. Fair enough. Ha.