I OFTEN HEAR PEOPLE SAY PRINT IS DEAD. If I believed that, you wouldn’t be reading this 23-year-old print publication, the only Amtrak magazine remaining, first published in 2004 when magazines were more widely consumed. New York By Rail began because Amtrak needed a resource solely focused on the routes serving New York and continuing into Canada and Vermont—Empire Service, Adirondack, Maple Leaf and Ethan Allen Express.

How has New York By Rail lasted for nearly a quarter-century? Very simple. We continue to publish a high-quality magazine with appealing curated content aimed at fulfilling our mission of “inspiring readers to want to take an Amtrak trip” and New York State has continued their longstanding support of New York By Rail. I’ve enjoyed working on each of our 23 issues as if it was the first one. By planning unique and new content, we strive to create interest in picking up each new issue.

How do we know we’re successful?

We’ve been recognized with numerous prestigious national and statewide awards including the Communications Concepts’ esteemed APEX Awards For Magazine Excellence for 16 consecutive issues (2009-2025) and most recently a 2025 NYS Tourism Excellence Award in the “Tourism Marketing Campaigns, Projects and Program in Printed Materials” category.

We also know by the popularity of New York By Rail at train stations, airports, consumer travel shows and hotel rooms necessitating regular inventory restocking. We partially solved this problem by having racks holding more than 200 magazines, alleviating the frequency of replenishment.

Many of you call our office after New York By Rail publishes to get the latest issue. There’s even a small group of New York By Rail collectors, including Stanley Kozackza who now has saved all past 22 issues of New York By Rail. Stanley reached out to me a few times last year to complete his collection because he was upset he was missing the 2006 issue. I compare that to not having one of Willie Mays’ baseball cards from his 22-year major league career. You can read Stanley’s story on page 96.

How do we know we inspire you to take a train trip?

Let me tell you how I came to meet Hope Henchey. Last April, Hope, a North Carolina resident, was using her USA Rail Pass taking the train from New York City to Albany- Rensselaer before finishing her intended final trips to go to Milwaukee, Chicago and back home down to Atlanta. However, during Hope’s train ride along the Hudson River she discovered so many cool cities to explore near Amtrak stops that she completely changed her final plans to spend more time in Albany and hop around Hudson Valley towns. During Hope’s brief layover at the Rensselaer station, she picked up a copy of New York By Rail for the very first time and read about some hidden gems she wanted to explore with this being her first time in this part of the country. As a result, Hope visited four cities—Albany, Hudson, Poughkeepsie and New York City—all in one day, without a car.

After reading Sean McAlindin’s first-person article, “24 Hours In Hudson,” Hope took a 30-minute train trip to Hudson and had an amazing time meeting friendly people, strolling Warren Street, enjoying cider at a pub doubling as a bookstore and visiting the Firefighting Museum. Hope then got back on the train and went to Poughkeepsie, compelled by more things she saw in New York By Rail. She discovered two pedestrian bridges, including the world’s largest railroad bridge during sunset, ruins at a state park and the quaint hamlet of Highland—all within walking distance of the Poughkeepsie Train Station.

After getting back on the train and going to New York City, she experienced a quintessential Manhattan moment, taking in the vibe near Moynihan Train Hall at night and an authentic slice of New York pizza—decidedly a great way to finish a day in the Empire State. Four cities in one day by Amtrak, easily accessible without a car, based on recommendations from New York By Rail magazine.

Hope is now an Editor-At-Large for New York By Rail and she’s been back three more times to discover more NYS cities reachable via Amtrak without a car, including Schenectady, Troy, Hyde Park, Niagara Falls, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Utica. To read Hope’s full adventures, go to page 64. Hope has chronicled all of her adventures on our Instagram page @newyorkbyrail with more than three dozen reels demonstrating how easy it is to explore the Empire State by Amtrak without a car.

While the internet is a must for trip planning, it also helps to have a trusted starting point of recommendations to search for. And that’s how New York By Rail has survived—and thrived—an amazing 23 years.

Feel free to share your car-free Amtrak adventures with New York By Rail so we can keep beating that drum!

—Thomas Martinelli
Publisher/CEO, New York By Rail