We’re looking for people who want to get involved with the effort to improve and expand passenger rail in the Pioneer Valley.
How to Get Involved
- Review the Trains in the Valley website and learn more
- Sign up to receive periodic email updates from Trains in the Valley (1–2 times per month) by filling out the short form on this link)
- Follow Trains In The Valley on Facebook
- Contact your elected officials and tell them why rail service is important to you, what should be fixed or improved, and what you’d like your elected reps to do.
- Help us out by collecting ridership information and/or taking pictures (see below)
- Support the Amtrak service that we have riding the trains!
Collecting ridership information
We’re looking for people who from time to time can stop by the Greenfield, Holyoke, and/or Northampton station platforms to “meet the train,” both the Valley Flyer and the Vermonter
What we’re trying to do is,
– Talk with passengers waiting on the platform for the train and answer any questions that they may have.
– Collect some ridership data (total on and offs)
Questions asked could include —
“Is this your first trip on the Valley Flyer?”
“If you’ don’t mind me asking, where are you going today?”
If you’d only prefer to simply count the on/offs that’s fine too.
We’re collecting this basic data (using a Google Form) so that we have an idea how many people are riding the trains and why they’re riding — since Amtrak does not release detailed ridership information.
We’ve been doing this for a while now with a few people and now we’d like to expand it so that we can hopefully cover more of the trains.
So what do you get out of doing this? The satisfaction that you’re helping to make the service a success. We also intend to share the data that we collect so you and others can see it.
If you’re interested or have questions please drop us note at trainsinthevalley@gmail.com
We look forward to hearing from people interested helping with this effort, even if its only from time to time.
Photographers Needed
We’re always looking for new an interesting images that can be used on the website or our Facebook page. We’re of course happy to credit you, or not — your choice.
Visit our photographers needed page for details.
Further Reading
Transportation Toolkit
U.S. Department of Transportation | 2017
The Transportation Toolkit is geared toward members of the public who wish to learn how to engage in the transportation decision-making process at the local, regional, state and federal levels. The Toolkit demystifies the decision-making process. It explains that transportation projects go through a predictable lifecycle (i.e., plan, fund, design, build and maintain).
Public Outreach Strategies
Miami-Dade Metropolitan Planning Organization
Page last updated: December 3, 2019
Page last reviewed: December 3, 2019