Cortlandt (Metro-North Hudson Line)

Cortlandt Station opened on about September 7, 1996. It is the first new station on the Hudson Line and since Metro-North was created in 1983. It combined the now closed Crugers and Montrose Stations. These stops contained simple and short low-level platforms on curves where building high-level platforms would be difficult. Parking at both stops was also extremely limited. The Crugers Station was about a mile south of this station, with Memorial Drive that is the East Access road to the station becoming Crugers Station Road just south of Albany Post Road. The Montrose Station was roughly three quarters of a mile north of today's station by rail a mile using the complex road network and was on Montrose Station Road (which has a bridge across the station tracks). The stop was primarily built to expand parking, although residents of Montrose and Crugers could no longer walk to the train. The original station opened with the Eastern Parking Area containing 903 parking spaces and all access from Memorial Drive, the current East Entrance to the Station. A $34.7 million station expansion began on November 13, 2009 with a groundbreaking and opened on February 15, 2012 712 new parking spaces and the West Entrance to the Station.

For Trains Cortlandt Station consists of a single relatively narrow island platform for the eastern two tracks of the three-track line. The platform can accommodate six cars. It has a canopy painted a light, tan color that covers the southern half the platform, beneath this canopy are two silver and glass shelters with doors for waiting passengers along with a third at the northern end of the station, not under a canopy. All access is at the southern end of the platform where an elevator in a brick shaft at the extreme southern end and an enclosed staircase (with glass walls) leads up to an enclosed by glass overpass. The overpass structure along with the station staircases have a light red roof that has been called Southwestern-style, and plenty of glass windows.

The original eastern parking lot used to be the only direction to turn on the overpass. Here an elevator in a brick shaft and staircase lead down to a passenger drop off loop with a bus shelter. A grassy median for the loop contains some trees and the Arts For Transit Installation. There are two parking lots one just north of this area and closest to the station and a second down past a small pond a slight walk from the station. The parking areas are tucked between the railroad line and Route 9, here a limited-access parkway. All access to the station here is from the south and half-mile long Memorial Drive, that does have a sidewalk and passes an sports activity center and State Police Department Station before reaching 9A-Albany Post Road (where the nearest Bee-Line Bus Stop also is). Signs mark the entrance from Albany Post Road are green and say Cortlandt Station East Entrance in gold between brick ornamental structures.

The station expansion added new parking spaces and the West Entrance (this has a similar sign). The vehicle (and pedestrian) entrance is also along Albany Post Road a half mile north of the East Entrance, at a traffic light across from the main entrance to the FDR Veterans Hospital. This driveway into the station (leading past the entrance to a cement plant) is about half the length of the West Entrance at a quarter-mile, and the one large parking lot is fairly close to Albany Post Road. It is on a higher elevation than the station (but not the overpass). Upon reaching the station a new entrance plaza is nicely landscaped including a covered area with vending machines. White text says Cortlandt Station guarding the main entrance. To reach the platform, stairs and a third elevator lead up to the level of the overpass. Stairs behind a locked gate and elevator (there is an inactive down button on the intermediate landing) provide non-public access down to what would be the entrance to a second platform along the currently, non-platforming third track if one is ever desired (this track ends at the Peekskill Station and the line north of there is two tracks). Going up to the overpass level doors surround an enclosed waiting area that includes a small concession area where a morning coffee stand is located. From here passengers proceed through to the overpass bridge. The new portion of the overpass that serves the western part of the station looks identical to the eastern portion, with no clear distinction for what was built 15 years earlier.
All Photos taken on 5 July, 2014