It varies tremendously, depending on what is happening when you arrive. For example they may be just filling the lock to
lift someone up so you have to wait until that happens, and then they may need to load up a bunch coming the other way to bring them down, etc. On the other hand, you might arrive just at the perfect moment when the gates are open and the lock
tender tells you to go ahead in. I would guess an average of 30 minutes, but an hour would not be out of line. Also, they are in the midst of potential layoffs of lock workers, which could make things slower than usual this spring. I highly recommend getting the
NYS Canal guidebook, which has all the information you need. There's a lot of other good information on that website.