Amtrak announced Friday they will restore service between Albany and New York City.

Amtrak will have an almost full restoration of service on the Empire Line, starting Monday, Dec. 2.

Gov. Kathy Hochul called it a huge victory.

Amtrak began reducing service on the Empire Line between Albany and New York City on Nov. 11, when they reduced the number of roundtrips from 13 to 10. That got rid of some popular trains for commuters including a 6:35 p.m. train from Albany to New York City and a 8:35 a.m. train from New York City to Albany.

Amtrak announced Friday they will bring that number of roundtrips up to 12.

Amtrak also said they will add more train cars to other trains on the line expanding capacity then what it was previously was at before the cuts.

NewsChannel 13 spoke to Amtrak Passengers at the Albany – Rensselaer station who were thrilled about change.

“It’s fantastic news,” said one passenger.

New York State Department of Transportation’s Commissioner Marie Therese Dominguez said this announcement is a win for everyone.

“Amtrak’s empire service, which runs between New York City and Albany, carries more than 2 million passengers each year. And Governor Hochul understands how critical this service is to New Yorkers. Which is why we heard and really wanted to make sure that we address things, specially going into the holiday season,” said Dominguez.

With these new schedules Amtrak will not restore the busy 5:05 a.m. train from Albany to New York City but will once again run the Maple Leaf and Adirondack trains as separate.

Amtrak has been running those trains combined from New York City and Albany since November 11th. This has led to passengers coming from locations such as Glen Falls, Saratoga Springs, and Amsterdam to have a layover at the Albany Rensselaer station for more than 90 minuets.

New York State said prep work is being done on the East River Tunnels right now before construction will begin on March 2nd.

These schedule changes are set to last till March 2, which is when Amtrak’s booking page shows service will be cut again.

“We’ve got some certainty here all the way through to the spring and we’re excited about that because literally this is a high-use season. You can imagine the holidays, the winter season. We want people to come to New York, right? We want them to take advantage of all the winter activities that we have up here,” said Dominguez.

Dominguez said that New York State will work with Amtrak to see what the schedules will look like after March 2.