Beacon (Metro-North station)

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View south down the platform.

The Beacon Metro-North Railroad station serves the residents of Beacon, New York, via the Hudson Line. Trains leave for New York City every hour on weekdays, and about every 25 minutes during rush hour. It is 59 miles (95 km) from Grand Central Terminal and travel time to Grand Central is approximately one hour, 29 minutes.

It is one of the few fully handicapped-accessible stations on the Hudson Line, featuring wheelchair ramps, an elevator to the train platform, and a high-level island platform which is level with the doors on the train (for many years, most Upper Hudson Line stations had platforms that were lower than the train doors). It also boasts a small newsstand on the platform itself, open daily.

Paid parking is provided. There are spaces that require permits and others which can be paid for on a daily basis. Parking is free on weekends and holidays.

Recent renovations by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority reflect the station's increasing traffic and importance as a destination. The Dia:Beacon art museum, a short walk from the station, has drawn regular visitors from the city since its 2003 opening to see its collection of large installations which could not be shown in the more limited spaces available in Manhattan. Many signs in and around the station point the way. The heavy Dia traffic on weekends is complemented by visitors to prisoners at Fishkill or Downstate correctional facilities, who take many of the taxis available from the station to the prisons just outside of town. Inmates being released are sometimes dropped off here as well to catch trains back to the city.

Like many others on the Hudson Line, the station is also right on the Hudson River. On October 17, 2005, ferry service to the station from Newburgh resumed after 42 years in which the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge had sufficed to bring people across the river. This has allowed the MTA to essentially increase the available parking for the station with little new construction due to the availability of land on the Newburgh waterfront. Fare is $1 per person each way; unlike Beacon, parking in Newburgh is free.

The station complex also has long housed an upper Hudson Line station of the MTA Police. Unruly passengers are often put off here to be taken into custody.