Niagara Rainbow

For the Empire Corridor service, see Empire Service (Amtrak).

Niagara Rainbow

Overview
Service type	Inter-city rail
Status	Discontinued
Locale	Michigan, New York, Ontario
First service	October 31, 1974
Last service	January 31, 1979
Former operator(s)	Amtrak
Route
Start	New York
Stops	16
End	Detroit
Distance travelled	676 miles (1,088 km)
Average journey time	14 hours 50 minutes
Service frequency	Daily
Train number(s)	63, 64
Technical
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Route map Legend Dist. Station 0 mi New York 32 mi  51 km  Croton-Harmon 73 mi  117 km  Poughkeepsie 88 mi  142 km  Rhinecliff-Kingston 114 mi  183 km  Hudson Lake Shore Limited to Boston 141 mi  227 km  Albany–Rensselaer Hudson River 151 mi  243 km  Colonie-Schenectady Adirondack to Montreal 178 mi  286 km  Amsterdam 238 mi  383 km  Utica 252 mi  406 km  Rome 286 mi  460 km  Syracuse 372 mi  599 km  Rochester 438 mi  705 km  Buffalo (Central) Lake Shore Limited to Chicago 440 mi  708 km  Buffalo (Exchange Street) 465 mi  748 km  Niagara Falls U.S./Canada border 467 mi  752 km  Welland 564 mi  908 km  St. Thomas 673 mi  1083 km  Windsor Canada/U.S. border 676 mi  1088 km  Detroit

The Niagara Rainbow, known as the Empire State Express before 1976, was a daily passenger train operated by Amtrak between New York and Detroit via Buffalo and the Canadian province of Ontario. Prior to the formation of Amtrak in 1971 the Penn Central's Wolverine and Motor City Special had served the route, but Amtrak had truncated the Wolverine to Detroit and discontinued the Motor City Special.

The Empire State Express, as it was then known, made its first run to Detroit on October 31, 1974. Before that it was one of the trains on the Empire Corridor, making a daily run between New York's Grand Central Terminal and Buffalo. The states of New York and Michigan provided the funds to extend the train through to Detroit. A day train, the Empire State Express carried no sleeping accommodations but did run with a baggage car and diner. At Buffalo, passengers could connect with a Penn Central/Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo Railway/Canadian Pacific Railway service to Toronto.

Amtrak changed the name of the train to Niagara Rainbow on April 25, 1976, although Niagara Falls itself continued to be served by a bus connection. In 1978 several state governments proposed replacing the Niagara Rainbow and its Chicago—Cleveland—New York counterpart Lake Shore Limited with a single train with separate sections via Detroit and Cleveland west of Buffalo and separate Boston and New York sections east of Albany. In the end the two trains remained separate. In October 1978 the Niagara Rainbow finally began stopping in Niagara Falls.

Amtrak truncated the Niagara Rainbow to Niagara Falls on January 31, 1979, after Michigan and New York withdrew their support. The United States Secretary of Transportation, Brock Adams, proposed re-routing the Lake Shore Limited, which ran through Cleveland on the opposite side of Lake Erie, over the Ontario route but this plan was not adopted by Congress.

Amtrak also ran an overnight service between New York and Toronto by the name of Niagara Rainbow in the 1990s.