The state subsidizes the train north of Albany, and last year spent $820,000 on the service. This year, under a new agreement with Amtrak, the state Department of Transportation was prepared to spend $1.14 million for the daily train.

But a budget impasse between the state Legislature and Gov. George Pataki has clouded the future of the Adirondack, which operates over one of the most scenic routes in the East as it follows the Hudson River and skirts the shorline of Lake Champlain.

Earlier this month, the Legislature passed a $79.6 billion so-called bare-bones budget that level-funded the Adirondack at $820,000. The governor's $83.6 billion budget included the full $1.14 million subsidy. The state budget was due April 1, the beginning of the fiscal year.

If the governor and lawmakers can't reach a budget accord, the bare-bones budget will tide the state over for the remainder of the fiscal, said state Budget Office spokesman Andrew Rush. And unless lawmakers pass a supplemental budget to cover the Adirondack shortfall, service could be curtailed.

Nonetheless, state officials don't expect that to happen. And today they were unable to determine what the deadline may be for curtailing service.

"The governor's working really hard to make sure that's a question we don't have to deal with," says Paula Kelly, a spokeswoman for the State Department of Transportation.

The state has supported the train for more than 20 years. Ridership has climbed from 70,000 in 1990 to more than 100,000 last year, Kelly said.

Amtrak says it's in daily contact with state officials. "We're going to dowhatever the state wants us to do," Amtrak spokeswoman Karen Dunn said. "Since it's a state-funded service, it's in the state's court."

Amtrak has no deadline by which New York must either increase its subsidy or face service curtailments, she said.