Today’s Headlines
• New Valley Flyer Schedule Starting May 28th
• Strong Ridership Reported in the Pioneer Valley
• Amtrak’s New Seating Arrangement
• Northampton Parking Update
• West-East Rail Update
• Northern Tier Study Wraps Up
• Powerful Words from our Elected Officials
• Rescuing Richardson’s Station – Holyoke’s 1885 Train Depot
Calendar
May 28, 2024 | Applications due date for FY23–24 Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvement (CRISI) grant funding. Available funding in this round is $2.48 billion.
Tues. August 13, 2024 | Vermont Rail Advisory Council
1 pm – 3 pm | VTrans, 2178 Airport Rd, Barre, VT (hybrid meeting w/online option)
New Valley Flyer Schedule Starting May 28th
Big News! Amtrak is adding a new Valley Flyer round trip between New Haven and Greenfield starting May 24th as part of a series of planned schedule changes.
The new southbound evening train — which will depart Greenfield at 6.05 pm and Northampton at 6:30 pm — will allow riders to travel to New Haven in the evening, and from there connect with continuing Amtrak service to New York City.
In another schedule change, the two southbound weekdays trains are being consolidated into a single southbound run – departing Greenfield at 6.20 am, and Northampton at 6.45 am – and connecting in Springfield with Northeast Regional Train 125 to New York City and Virginia.
The changes to the morning trains are being made to accommodate ongoing construction of the new station in Windsor Locks CT and related track improvement projects in the vicinity of the new station.
We expect that with these changes we will see lower fares on the Valley Flyer for travel to New York City.
For the most part all of these changes are very good news for the Valley Flyer.
The changes are expected to increase overall ridership on the trains that operate north of Springfield, including the Vermonter, since additional train frequencies on a corridor almost always has a positive effect on ridership — as long as Amtrak doesn’t let its yield management system set sky high fares for travel as they’ve done recently on some trips.
Here’s an updated timetable —
New Southbound schedule
New Northbound schedule
For those looking for further details, here’s are deep dive into what’s going on with this schedule change.
1 | New Valley Flyer trains in the late afternoon & early evening
Amtrak is adding a new weekday Valley Flyer round trip between New Haven and Greenfield, which is great news.
Train 486 will operate northbound in the late afternoon and stop in Holyoke at 4.48 pm, Northampton at 5.04 pm, and arrive in Greenfield at 5.30 pm.
The new train will take some of the load of the Vermonter which often carries a great many riders who step off the train in Greenfield or Northampton. On busy travel days this should free up seats for people using the Vermonter to travel to Vermont.
This train set will then become southbound train 479 which will depart Greenfield at 6.05 pm, and stop in Northampton at 6.30 pm, Holyoke at 6.45 pm, Springfield at 7.13 pm and then make all stops to New Haven where it will connect with Amtrak Northeast Regional train 179 to New York Penn Station.
With this new southbound Valley Flyer train it will be possible to travel in the evening from Greenfield, Northampton, and Holyoke to New York City for the first time since the 1960s.
2 | Changes to the weekday morning schedule
Southbound weekday train 495 will originate from Springfield instead of Greenfield effective Tuesday, May 28th. Also on this date, train 471 will originate from Hartford CT instead of Greenfield.
In place of these trains, Amtrak will introduce a new southbound morning train departing Greenfield at 6:20 am, making stops at Northampton at 6:45 am and Holyoke at 7:00 am, before connecting in Springfield with Amtrak Northeast Regional train 125, which travels to New York Penn Station, and continues to Newport News, VA.
These changes are being made to accommodate the ongoing construction of a new station in Windsor Locks, CT, and related track improvement projects.
Notably, the new Valley Flyer train will not be connecting with a Northeast Regional train in New Haven. Instead it will be connecting in Springfield where Northeast Regional train 125 originates.
3 | The expectation that we will see lower fares with these changes
Its likely we will see lower fares for travel to New York Penn Station on the Valley Valley in the morning with the new schedule because the connecting service (Northeast Regional train 125) originates in Springfield as an eight car train set with over 500 available seats.
Already we can see that the lowest one-way fare for travel from Northampton to New York Penn Station (after May 27th) has dropped from $47 to $36 on the Valley Flyer.
This compares to the very high fares (as high as $172) that we’ve seen on certain days over the past few weeks for travel from Northampton to NYC on the morning trains.
The high fares occur when either the Valley Flyer or the connecting Amtrak train in New Haven is near capacity, which is great for Amtrak but not great for people who want to take the train.
Importantly, these fares likely will not rise too much on most days even if you purchase a ticket close to the day of departure because there will plenty of available seats on the train all the way to New York City, except on the busiest travel days.
4 | The downside
The downside to all of this is that we’re losing southbound trains 495 (the 5.45 am departure from Greenfield) and northbound train 478 (the 12.38 am arrival in Greenfield) from the schedule, at least for now.
By all accounts the early morning train was a bit to early for most people, and the midnight train was way to late for just about everyone.
Strong Ridership Reported in the Pioneer Valley
MassDOT announced very strong passenger rail ridership growth along the north-south Knowledge Corridor at the April 2024 meeting of the MassDOT Board of Directors.
February 2024 ridership — for Springfield, Holyoke, Northampton, and Greenfield — was reported to be 52% higher than last year (2023) and 57% higher than pre-pandemic levels (which would be 2019).
This ridership growth includes riders on Amtrak’s Hartford Line and Northeast Regional trains in Springfield, and rider’s on Amtrak Valley Flyer and Vermonter trains in Greenfield, Holyoke, and Northampton.
According to MassDOT, must of this growth was focused on travel to and from New York City.
The significant ridership growth on the Amtrak operated services in western Mass clearly bodes well for the future West-East passenger rail service.
In related news, March 2024 ridership for the Vermonter1 was reported by Amtrak to be up 16% higher than last year (2023) and 22% higher than pre-pandemic levels.
Further reading
“More aboard! Train travel picks up steam in Valley, region”
By Emilee Klein | Daily Hampshire Gazette | December 26, 2023
1The ridership numbers reported by Amtrak for the Vermonter do not include trips between stations south of Holyoke MA.
Amtrak’s New Seating Arrangement
In March Amtrak transitioning all of its Northeast Corridor trains — including the Vermonter — to a mix of “fixed forward and backward seating.”
What this means is that roughly half of the seats in each coach are now arranged in a forward-facing layout, and the other half are in a rear-facing layout.
Many Amtrak routes have operated with permanent fixed forward and backward seating for years, including all of the Valley Flyer and the Amtrak and CTrail operated Hartford Line trains.
Amtrak made this change to eliminate the need to turn around each train set at the end of it run by moving the train through a special “loop track” or a wye.
With the saved time (which is up to three hours) Amtrak has been able to introduce four new trains between Washington DC and New York Penn Station.
A hint for those people who’d prefer to ride the Vermonter facing in the direction travel — The forward facing seats are in the front half of each coach on the train. You can increase your chances of getting one of these seats by entering the coach though the front vestibule of the coach that you want to sit in.
Further reading
Our New Seating Arrangement: Fixed Forward and Backward Seating (PDF)
Amtrak Media Relations | February 27, 2023
Fixed Seats Come to the Northeast Corridor
By Jim Mathews, President & CEO of the Rail Passengers Association | March 1, 2024
Northampton Parking Update
We’ve recently updated the parking section of the Northampton station page on this site to better highlight the options for people who want to park and take the train in Northampton.
Here’s an overview of the options —
If cost is not an issue, you can park at the privately-owned parking lot adjacent to the station platform, for $15/day.
The better option is the nearby long-term public parking lots that were established as part of a set of parking reforms that were made by the city back in March of 2023.
For example, in the Hampton Avenue Lot (which is about a 7 minute walk from the station) you can park for up to seven days for just $2.25/day.
And then there is the city parking garage, which is $18/day, which is a bit pricey.
Of course the best option is to walk, take public transit, call a taxi or an Uber, or get dropped off at the station, but we understand that this is not always possible.
We would encourage anyone that wants to park and take the train in Northampton to have a look at the revamped parking section on the Northampton station page of the site.
Please don’t waste your time checking the parking section of Amtrak’s web page for the station in Northampton, which tells you that same-day and overnight parking is available, and nothing else.
We’d like to think that we’ve highlighted everything that you need to know, bit if you think we’ve missed something or have a question please drop us a note using our Contact Form.
West-East Rail Update
There’s a lot happening behind the scenes at the moment with the West-East rail project and we thought it was time to briefly review what’s going on.
Using the slide above, which was part of a recent presentation that was made by MassDOT to legislator’s and other stakeholders in the region, lets highlight the many moving parts of this project.
1 | Springfield Track Reconfiguration Project
MassDOT has been leading an effort over the past two years to manage preliminary design, engineering and environmental work related to a major project that as planned will reconfigure the tracks in and around Springfield Union Station.
The track infrastructure in Springfield desperately needs to be reconfigured and some cases expanded in order to reduce and where possible eliminate conflicting freight and passengers trains movements at the station — for the service today, and the planned service coming soon.
This is a “must do” project on the list of projects that will be needed to for West-East Rail, and the next step we suspect will be an application for a federal grant to move the project to construction.
2 | Palmer Station Planning and Design
Earlier this year MassDOT kicked off an 18 months project to select a preferred station site and prepare a conceptual design for a new passenger rail station in Palmer.
A consulting firm has been selected to work with MassDOT on the project and a municipal stakeholder group as been assembled.
3| Early Action for the Inland Route Project
In September 2023 MassDOT was awarded $108 million in funding from the Federal Railroad Administration for corridor infrastructure projects (track upgrades, additional main line track, and passing sidings) between Worcester and Springfield as part of this project. Design work is expect to start this summer with construction kicking off in 2027.
Additionally, MassDOT is working with CSX, the owner of the rail corridor west of Worcester, to complete an operations model that will guide future investments in the West-East corridor.
4| Boston & Albany Corridor ID Project
In late 2023 MassDOT was awarded a $500,000 grant from the Federal Railroad Administration to support planning for additional passenger rail service between Boston South Station and Albany, NY via Springfield.
With the announcement of this award, the Boston & Albany Corridor (as it is now called) will proceed through a planning process the will conclude with the publication of a Service Development Plan for new service between Boston & Albany.
With a Service Development Plan in place we expect that MassDOT will seek federal grants for design, permitting, environmental work, and construction of the necessary infrastructure improvements that will be needed to add additional passenger trains west of Springfield.
5 | Hartford Line Double track project (managed by CTDOT)
To the south us, CTDOT and Amtrak are finalizing the planning and design work that will soon allow them to install about six miles of new track that will complete the double-tracking of the Amtrak-owned rail corridor between Springfield and New Haven CT. (Some of this new second main line track will be installed in Windsor Locks CT starting in June.)
This is an important project since the remaining sections of single-track on this corridor are bottlenecks that delay trains on this corridor on a regular basis and limit the number of trains that can operate between Hartford and Springfield.
The first two West-East round-trip trains between Boston South Station and Springfield, with continuing service to New Haven are expect to start in 2029.
Yes, that’s five years away, but big projects like this take time to plan, time to design, time to clear environmental approvals, and time to build.
The key here is that we have the political will and the funding to move this project forward, with momentum now on our side.
Further reading
“Analysis: Slow Train of Compass Rail Coming; but Is That Sufficient?…”
Western Mass Politics and Insight | May 12, 2024
Northern Tier Study Wraps Up
Depending on where you start counting, the Northern Tier Passenger Rail Study has either taken three years or its taken five years — but at long last we’ve almost come to the end.
When Senator Jo Comerford first introduced Bill S.2054, “An Act to examine the feasibility of rail service between North Adams, Greenfield and Boston” back in January of 2019 she surely never imaged that five years would pass before the study was (almost) finished. But she also never imagined that we would living through a pandemic.
For reasons that have never been explained, all of the study meetings over the past three years were hosted virtually via Zoom. Not a single meeting was held in Greenfield, North Adams, or anywhere else.
In our view this is shame and a mistake, since something is lost when the entire interactive experience that you have with someone, something, or some process is entirely virtual.
You miss the human interaction, the side comments, and the chats with people who attend the meetings — in particular the study team and the members of the official working group.
With that said, virtual meetings do allow for extreme numbers of people to attend and participate, which of course can be a good thing, or a bad thing.
For this study the virtual attendance at the first public information meeting was 68 people, with the 159 people attending the 2nd public meeting. (The attendance number for the third and final public meeting has yet to be announced.)
The final meeting for this study was held on March 28,2024, about seven weeks ago.
Now we wait for the release of the draft public report, which will start the 30-day public comment period. The comments will be reviewed and then final report will be released.
As soon as we see the draft final report online you can be sure that we will get the word out, as MassDOT will, so that everyone has one last chance to submit their comments.
Further reading
Northern Tier Passenger Rail Study Overview
Trains In The Valley
“Northern Tier Rail Gets Strong Support at Hearing”
By Tammy Daniels | iBerkshires.com | April 2, 2024
“Officials talk funding for, hear feedback on Northern Tier Passenger Rail”
By Chris Larabee | Greenfield Recorder | March 29, 2023
“Why isn’t Northern Tier Rail included in state’s vision for passenger train travel in Western Massachusetts?”
By Sten Spinella | The Berkshire Eagle | April 12, 2024
Powerful Words from our Elected Officials
Reprinted above is a guest column by Senator Jo Comerford, Representative Natalie Blais, and Representative Susannah Whipps that was published by the Republican back in February.
Coming in at number two on the list of ” ‘Ghost town’ busters” is this statement calling for us all to embrace the potential of regional rail in western Mass.
We are grateful for the focus, priority, and attention that the elected official in our region of the Commonwealth give to expansion of passenger rail service.
Rescuing Richardon’s Station – Holyoke’s 1885 Train Depot
The video above is a recording of a presentation that local historian Will Melton gave on March 26th at the Holyoke Public Library.
The presentation tells the story of Holyoke’s historic station, including Dave White’s recent renovation, and hopes for its future.
From the media release for this event —
Considered by many to be the greatest American architect of the 19th century, Henry Hobson Richardson and his firm were commissioned to design more than two dozen railroad stations, many along the east-west line of the Boston & Albany Railroad.
Only one, his 1885 Holyoke Passenger Station, was completed in his lifetime on the north-south line between New York and Montreal (the Connecticut River Railroad). When rail passenger service to Holyoke was abandoned nearly 80 years later, the station was altered into automobile parts and machine shops.
It sat empty for decades until local businessman David White bought the building in 2021, “tired of listening to people complain ‘Someone should fix it before it falls down.’” His takeout restaurant and Choo Choo’s Ice Cream shop will open on the site this Spring. Dave’s friend Will Melton will tell the story of Richardson and this architectural commission.
Will Melton retired in 2015 after four decades in university and museum fund raising to devote time to gardening, his mandolin ensemble, and history studies and writing.
Further reading
Holyoke Station Feasibility Study and Site Analysis (PDF)
Pioneer Valley Planning Commission | March 31, 2011