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Amtrak rail station in Rhinebeck, New York

Rhinecliff station (formerly Rhinecliff–Kingston) is an Amtrak intercity rail station located in the Rhinecliff hamlet of Rhinebeck, New York, United States. The station has one low level island platform, with a wheelchair lift for accessibility. It is served by the , , , , , and
The original Rhinebeck station opened with the Hudson River Railroad in 1851. It was relocated south a year later to resolve a dispute with the Rhinecliff–Kingston ferry; the village of Rhinecliff grew around the new location. The Rhinebeck and Connecticut Railroad (R&C) opened in 1875, prompting the station to be renamed Rhinecliff. The New York Central Railroad (NYC), successor to the Hudson River Railroad, expanded the line to four tracks in 1910–1914. The project included a new Rhinecliff station with a brick station building and two island platforms. Passenger service on the former R&C ended in 1928 and the line was abandoned in 1938. NYC passenger service declined in the mid 20th century; the east platform was removed after the line was reduced to two tracks in 1962. The NYC merged into Penn Central in 1968, and Amtrak took over passenger service in 1971. Amtrak gradually added service; by 2000, Rhinecliff was served by 13 daily round trips. Rhinecliff station was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 as a contributing property to the Sixteen Mile District, which became part of the Hudson River Historic District in 1990. The station building closed in 2022 for a two year renovation. A project to build a longer, accessible high level platform is planned.

Rhinecliff station is located on the west side of the hamlet of Rhinecliff along the east bank of the Hudson River. It has a single low level island platform, long, between the two tracks of the CSX Hudson Subdivision. A wheelchair lift is used for accessibility. The interior is finished in brick and wood.

The Hudson River Railroad opened between Greenbush (across the Hudson River from Albany) and New York City on October 1, 1851. At the time, ferry service between Kingston and Rhinebeck used either of two wharves on the east (Rhinebeck) side – Slate Dock or Long Dock – as determined by majority vote of eastbound passengers. The two docks were located about apart, due west of Rhinebeck and north of where Rhinecliff village is now located. The railroad station was established adjacent to Slate Dock when the railroad opened. This arrangement proved highly inconvenient to railroad passengers, who were forced to walk down the track or take a longer detour on roads if the ferry went to Long Dock, and thus often missed their trains. Ferries were also not timed to make connections with trains. These issues were intentional on the part of brothers William and Charles Handy Russell, who owned the ferry as well as significant stock in the railroad. They aimed to garner support to relocate both the ferry terminus and railroad station to Shatzell's Dock, about south of Slate Dock, where they owned land. By 1867, a freight house was located on the west side of the tracks north of the station. The Hudson River Railroad was merged to become the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad (NYC&HR) in 1869.

The Rhinebeck and Connecticut Railroad (R&C) was chartered on June 29, 1870, to build a railroad from Rhinecliff east to the Connecticut state line, where it would join the Connecticut Western Railroad. Construction began in October 1871. Freight service began in stages as construction proceeded eastward; the line fully opened between Slate Dock and Boston Corners on April 4, 1875. Passenger trains began using the extension in mid August 1875. Later that year, the R&C built a new spur to reach Slate Dock without crossing the Hudson River Railroad at grade. It split off from the mainline north of Rhinecliff, passed over the Hudson River Railroad on a trestle, and sloped down to reach the dock. The R&C called the station Rhinecliff, though it remained "Rhinebeck" on NYC&HR schedules until the 1890s. The R&C used a single track on the east side of the station building. The aging station proved inadequate for the increased traffic; in 1877, a local newspaper likened it to a rookery. The NYC&HR soon moved a disused corrugated iron station building from Yonkers to Rhinecliff to replace the older station. The original ferry slip was on the north side of Shatzell's Dock; it was supplemented in 1877 by a second slip on the south side, and the original slip was later abandoned. The construction of the Poughkeepsie Bridge in the 1880s triggered a series of acquisitions and mergers. The H&CW was leased by the Central New England and Western Railroad in 1889, forming a mainline running from Campbell Hall, New York, to Hartford, Connecticut. The line became part of the Philadelphia, Reading and New England Railroad in 1892, then the Central New England Railway (CNE) in 1899.

The NYC&HR widened much of the line to four tracks in the early 20th century. In 1910, with quadruple tracking south of Poughkeepsie largely complete, the company began work on the segment north from Poughkeepsie through Rhinecliff to Barrytown. At Rhinecliff, the cliff face was blasted out to make room for the additional tracks. As part of the quadruple tracking, the railroad built a new station at Rhinebeck. In October 1913, the railroad issued a construction contract for the station building and platforms. The station was designed by the firm of Warren and Wetmore, which had previously designed Grand Central Terminal and other stations for the railroad. Due to the influence of wealthy Rhinebeck residents John Jacob Astor IV and Levi P. Morton, it was unusually large for a hamlet the size of Rhinecliff. A new freight house was also constructed. While the NYC mainline (the Hudson Division) was well used, the Rhinecliff Branch was not. By 1915, the line had just two daily round trips. This was reduced to a single mixed train round trip by 1921, and ended entirely in 1928. The line was used for freight service until August 1, 1938, when it was abandoned along with almost the entire remaining CNE system. Privately operated ferry service ended on December 17, 1942. The state acquired the landings and franchise; ferry service resumed on May 17, 1946. The railroad sold the Shatzell Avenue footbridge to the town in 1958. The New York Central began removing tracks from the main line in the 1950s as traffic decreased. Only three tracks were in use at Rhinecliff by 1960. By then, Rhinecliff was served by five northbound and six southbound daily trains, including the Wolverine. The portion of the line between Poughkeepsie and Barrytown was further reduced to two tracks in November 1962 with the activation of centralized traffic control. At Rhinecliff, the western platform and tracks (formerly the southbound tracks) remained in service; a parking lot replaced the eastern tracks and platform. On December 3, 1967, the NYC rebranded its trains in the New York–Albany–Buffalo corridor as The NYC merged into Penn Central in 1968. By September of that year, Rhinecliff was served by three of the eight daily Empire Service round trips.

Amtrak took over intercity passenger service, including the Empire Service, on May 1, 1971. Amtrak initially operated seven round trips on the corridor, of which Rhinecliff was served by six northbound (westbound) and four southbound (eastbound) trips. The operated from May 10, 1971, to January 4, 1972; the southbound train stopped at Rhinecliff during part of 1971. Amtrak gradually added services in the corridor – many of them modifications of existing Empire Service trains – that also served points outside the Empire Corridor. The and (later ) were introduced in 1974, followed by the in 1975. Rhinecliff station was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 as a contributing property to the Sixteen Mile District, which became part of the Hudson River Historic District in 1990. The westbound Lake Shore Limited ceased stopping at Rhinecliff on May 21, 1989; the eastbound train stopped intermittently until October 26, 1997. From 1993 to 2010, Amtrak called the station "Rhinecliff–Kingston". In 1994, Metro North Railroad proposed to extend its Hudson Line commuter service to Rhinecliff from Poughkeepsie. One Empire Service round trip became the in 1996. Service increases in the 1990s brought the corridor to 14 daily round trips by 2000, of which 13 stopped at Rhinecliff. The westbound Lake Shore Limited stopped at Rhinecliff from 2005 to 2006, and the eastbound from 2007 to 2009. It resumed stopping in both directions in 2014. By early 2020, Rhinecliff was served by all 13 daily round trips on the corridor. Service was sharply reduced due to the COVID 19 pandemic, but most resumed by the end of 2020. In March 2020, Amtrak reached an agreement with the town and county over special district taxes. The county had confiscated the title to the station building property in 2001 over Amtrak's nonpayment of the taxes, which the railroad is normally exempt from. The agreement allowed Amtrak to proceed with plans for renovations. In August 2022, the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) was awarded $28.2 million in federal funds for final design and construction of the renovations, with a planned 30% state match. The project will include a high level platform longer than the existing platform, improvements to elevators and footbridges, and a new interlocking south of the station. In May 2023, Amtrak indicated that the station would remain in service during the four to six year construction process for the platform. The town sold the south footbridge to Amtrak for $10 in June 2023.