On track to the future?

 

Amtrak’s Ethan Allen Express stops in Saratoga Springs on its way from Burlington, Vt., to New York City. photo by Joan K. Lentini

 

By MAURY THOMPSON
Contributing writer

 

When Rutland Mayor David Allaire won his first election to become a city alderman in 1998, one of his goals was to restore passenger train service between Rutland and Burlington.
Nearly a quarter of a century later, Allaire’s dream came to fruition this summer. On July 29, Amtrak extended its Ethan Allen Express line, which previously had operated between New York City and Rutland, northward to Burlington, adding new stops at Middlebury and Vergennes.
“That was a historic day for us,” said Allaire, who serves on the board of the Vermont Rail Action Network, a nonprofit that pushes for better train service in the state.

Now advocates are hoping the new daily train to Burlington is just the start of what could be a wave of passenger rail expansions and improvements around the region in the next several years. Some long-discussed projects could finally become reality with the help of funds from the bipartisan infrastructure law that Congress approved last year.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a top priority of President Biden, provides $66 billion in federal funding for passenger-rail projects. That sum represents by far the largest federal investment in trains since the government created Amtrak in 1971 to take over service from private railroad companies.

“The future is hopefully bright,” said Bruce Becker, a spokesman for the Empire State Passengers Association, a statewide rail advocacy group in New York.

Amtrak has identified “a more resilient Northeast Corridor” as one of its priorities, and a chunk of the new law’s funds will go toward infrastructure upgrades along the carrier’s busy coastal route from Boston to New York City and Washington.

But another portion of the new funding will be awarded to states and multi-state compacts through a competitive grant process to support new and expanded rail service, potentially reviving service on some routes that haven’t seen a passenger train in decades.

Locally, Massachusetts officials are already pursuing funds to add more trains to the east-west route from Boston to Pittsfield and Albany, which currently has only a once-a-day Amtrak run. At the same time, Massachusetts is studying the potential for restoring passenger trains to a freight line along the state’s northern tier from North Adams and Greenfield to Boston.

This summer, Amtrak launched the seasonal, weekend-only Berkshire Flyer, a train linking New York City and Pittsfield via Albany. But the Train Campaign, a local nonprofit in the Berkshires, has long called for more frequent, year-round train service from the Berkshires to New York via a freight line that follows the Housatonic River valley south to Danbury, Conn. That route would allow direct service from New York to Great Barrington, Stockbridge and Lenox.

In Vermont, officials want to link the state’s passenger rail network northward to Montreal, and some local advocates dream of having train service from Manchester and North Bennington to Albany and New York City – a concept that won support in a 2014 state study.

And in New York, rail advocates have called for upgrades to the state’s busy line from Manhattan to Albany and Schenectady — and for additional service to Saratoga Springs.

 

Travelers prepare to board Amtrak’s Ethan Allen Express last month in Saratoga Springs. The train, which previously ran between New York City and Rutland, now continues north to Burlington. Joan K. Lentini photo

 

Burlington and beyond
In Vermont, Becker said the newly extended Ethan Allen Express is the first intercity train to stop at downtown Burlington’s Union Station since 1953.
“It’s great news for Vermont,” he said.

Trains now leave Burlington daily at 10:10 a.m. and arrive at New York City’s Penn Station at 5:45 p.m. Northbound trains leave Penn Station at 2:20 p.m. daily and arrive at Burlington at 9:55 p.m. One-way fares between Burlington and New York City start at $75.

Ridership currently is mainly people that are traveling to or from New York City. The schedule requires visitors who use the train to reach Vermont to stay over for at least one night before heading home.

“With Vermont having a big interest in tourism, it does that well,” said George Lerrigo, a passenger rail enthusiast from North Bennington.

Commuting by rail between Burlington and Rutland is impractical for now because of the timing of the once-a-day runs. But Allaire, the Rutland mayor, said it could become feasible if ridership grows enough to support adding a second daily run between the two Vermont cities.
“If the projections come true, we’re going to see a steady increase in ridership through the winter and early next year,” he said.

After Rutland, the route swings west through Castleton before crossing into New York and stopping at Fort Edward and Saratoga Springs on its way south toward Albany and Manhattan. The portion of the route south of Rutland has been running since the 1990s.

“We really value our direct route to New York,” said Allaire, who has been Rutland’s mayor since 2017 and was a city alderman for 19 years before that.

Allaire and others said the state’s next priority is extending Amtrak’s Vermonter, which now runs between Washington, D.C., and St. Albans through Brattleboro, White River Junction and Montpelier, northward to Montreal.

“I see that happening in the next couple of years,” he said.
South of Vermont, the Vermonter line passes through Springfield, Mass., and New Haven, Conn., on its way to New York City and Washington. The state has been supporting the train’s operation since 1995, when Amtrak canceled its overnight Montrealer service, which had followed the same route through New England.

Restoring service from St. Albans northward into Canada would mean travelers to and from Montreal could travel through Vermont in one direction and return using the Adirondack line through New York, Lerrigo explained.

“That, I think, would be the next logical extension, and then stitch it all together,” he said.

 

The missing Adirondack
Figures from this year show there was a sharp increase in ridership on the Ethan Allen Express line even before its extension to Burlington.

In July, the number of travelers on the route was up 200 percent from the level in July 2019, the last summer before the Covid-19 pandemic, Becker said.

Some of that increase can be attributed to passengers traveling to or from Saratoga Springs and Fort Edward using the trains as a temporary alternative to the Adirondack, Amtrak’s route between New York City and Montreal, which still has not yet resumed service since a Covid-related suspension that began in early 2020.

Amtrak has a goal of restoring service on the Adirondack line in early December, said Garry Douglas, the president of the Plattsburgh-North Country Chamber of Commerce and New York president of the New York/Quebec Corridor Coalition.
“We’re anxious to see that in place,” he said.

Once both trains are operating, it is expected to provide a critical mass of rail options that will increase rail travel overall.

“I think they will complement one another,” said U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko, D-Amsterdam.
The Adirondack follows the same route as the Ethan Allen Express between New York City and Fort Edward, then branches off at Whitehall to follow the west side of Lake Champlain to the Canadian border.

Douglas said restoring the service has taken longer than what local officials and business leaders would have liked, but now they are encouraged that the issues are finally being resolved.
One major holdup has been getting the tracks and staff recertified for international service, a process that’s now under way, he added. The certification ran out during the pandemic and was not renewed at the time because the line was not being operated.

Douglas said U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, and U.S. Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., were influential in pressing Amtrak to move forward in restoring the service.

He also said the infrastructure bill allocates specific funding for an estimated $29 million new border crossing station that will include a rail platform. The upgrade will allow border agents to board trains more expeditiously to clear passengers and their baggage through customs, reducing delays.

“We’re welcoming that,” Douglas said.
Eventually, he said, a customs facility will be built at the Montreal station, so that southbound passengers and their baggage can be pre-cleared before boarding the trains, eliminating a lengthy stop at the border. The facility could serve the extended Vermonter train as well.
In 2016, President Barack Obama signed long-sought legislation that allowed federal transportation officials to work with their Canadian counterparts to establish a process for passengers to complete customs inspections at either Montreal or New York City, but that process and the necessary infrastructure are still being worked out.

Douglas said he will work with federal and state officials to identify grant opportunities under the new infrastructure law that could be used for improvements along the Adirondack line.
“We will, certainly, advocate for our share,” he said.

Becker, of the Empire State Passengers Association, said the section of track north of the international border at Rouses Point has deteriorated while the Adirondack line has been shut down – and needs work to allow the trains to travel at normal speeds.

Douglas said his understanding is that several minor track improvement projects are under way on that section.

 

Eastward to Boston
In Massachusetts, Gov. Charlie Baker announced in August that his administration will complete federal grant applications for projects to upgrade the state’s east-west passenger rail corridor before he leaves office at the end of the year.

The major-party candidates vying to succeed Baker – Democrat Maura Healey and Republican Geoff Diehl – both have expressed support for the effort.

In July, the state Legislature passed a transportation bond act that includes $275 million in funding for the east-west route, which links Boston and Pittsfield via Worcester and Springfield.
State transportation officials in New York also acted in August to endorse Massachusetts’ request for Amtrak to add two additional trains daily between Albany and Boston, increasing the total daily number of daily trains on the route through Pittsfield from one to three in each direction, according to reports in the Times Union of Albany and The Republican of Springfield.
At the same time, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation is conducting a separate study of the costs and benefits of re-establishing passenger rail service across the state’s northern tier between Boston, Greenfield and North Adams.

The “Route 2 corridor” study is expected to be completed in the spring, said state Sen. Jo Comerford, D-Northampton, who sponsored legislation to conduct and fund the study.
Consultants will conduct a half-day workshop this month to present their initial findings and to collect feedback about multiple service alternatives for the route.

There is no estimate yet of the cost of restoring service on the northern tier route. The cost will depend on factors such as how fast passenger trains will travel and to what degree passenger rail will be coordinated with freight service, Comerford said.

She added that the impetus of the study is an interest in parity between passenger rail infrastructure and highways.

Decades ago, people could live in western Massachusetts and commute by train to jobs in Boston. Now those west of Worcester and Fitchburg must drive.

“The cost of housing in the Boston suburbs is astronomical,” said U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, D-Springfield, in a press release. “We believe that this would provide some relief for those who might want to live out here, and there’s also this lesson of remote work, so we think this would adhere to the benefit for those who can’t afford to pay prices in the Boston area but could live in a great part of Massachusetts.”

Comerford said it is important for residents to be vocal about their support for passenger rail.
“It’s a good time financially to apply ourselves to this effort, but there is no guarantee,” she said.
For the past few years, Massachusetts has supported increased north-south service along the 35-mile line from Greenfield and Northampton to Springfield, which is the northern terminus of a frequent-service rail corridor to Hartford and New Haven.

The weekend-only Berkshire Flyer, which debuted in July and operated through Labor Day, is expected to resume service next summer.

 

Replacing a slow bridge
Both the Berkshire Flyer service and Vermont’s Ethan Allen Express depend on the infrastructure of New York’s busy Empire Service line that hugs the east shore of the Hudson River from Manhattan to Albany and then swings west across the state to Buffalo and Niagara Falls.
In recent years New York has funded construction of a new station in downtown Schenectady as well as construction of second 110 mph track between Albany and Schenectady, eliminating a bottleneck that had become of source of delays.

More upgrades are on tap. In particular, Becker said Gov. Kathy Hochul has pledged to support replacement of the Livingston Avenue bridge that carries the tracks across the Hudson River from Rensselaer to Albany.

In May, Hochul announced that the state’s new Department of Transportation capital plan includes $32.8 million to replace the existing bridge, constructed in 1865, with a new, modern structure for higher-speed passenger rail, freight rail, bicycle and pedestrian travel.

“Anyone who rides the rails in upstate New York knows all too well the travel delays caused by the antiquated Livingston Avenue bridge,” Hochul said in a press release. “Replacing this relic of the 19th century will not only improve passenger and freight rail service throughout New York, but it will also provide bikers, hikers and pedestrians with a new, safer way to cross the Hudson River.”

Currently, only one train can cross the bridge at a time, with a speed limit of 15 mph.