Eric Anderson is reporting in the Times Union Amtrak and state officials are racing to meet an Oct. 1 deadline on a cost-sharing agreement required to avert a rail shutdown in New York. Amtrak this week began notifying employees in New York and other states without agreements that service could end on some routes and that their jobs could be abolished. The cost-sharing agreement is required by legislation Congress passed five years ago. Known as the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008, states and Amtrak are required to jointly develop a method to share costs for trains on routes of up to 750 miles. Amtrak has more than 1,600 employees in New York state and operates a maintenance facility at Rensselaer. The passenger railroad said it set an all-time record for ridership in July, up nearly five percent from July 2012. The route between the Capital Region and New York City, one of the busiest, carried just under 100,000 passengers in July. Read the full story in the Times Union.