Two weekday round trips — morning southbound and evening northbound — will augment the midday Washington, D.C.-St. Albans, Vt., Vermonter. The morning trains will depart Greenfield at 5:45 a.m. and 7:35 a.m, connecting to New York-bound Amtrak trains leaving New Haven at 8:38 a.m. and 10:37 a.m. The evening trains, departing from New Haven at 7:35 p.m. and 9:55 p.m., connect with trains arriving from New York and arrive in Greenfield at 10:23 p.m. and 12:38 p.m.
On weekends, northbound train No. 400 departs the newly refurbished Springfield Union Station at 7:50 a.m. without a connection from New Haven, then runs south from Greenfield as an extension to train 461. In the evening, northbound No. 488 from New Haven heads to Greenfield at 6:45 p.m. It returns only as far as Springfield as train No. 499, departing at 8:10 p.m.
The route has hosted the Vermonter since 2014, when a $70 million stimulus-funded upgrade of deteriorated Pan Am Railways tracks in western Massachusetts (a former north-south Boston & Maine route) allowed Amtrak to return to the more direct route once used by the Montrealer. [See “Amtrak to shift ‘Vermonter’ route Dec. 29,” Trains News Wire, Dec. 12, 2014.] Strategically placed passing tracks, Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant stations, and modern interlockings with remote-controlled switches and signals paved the way for the new trains.
However, unlike additional CTrail New Haven-Springfield service added in June 2018 by the state of Connecticut, Massachusetts is not subsidizing fares. Instead, Amtrak is letting its systemwide “Saver” and “Value” yield management fare rules govern pricing. For instance, a one-way Greenfield-Springfield adult “Saver” fare, available only two weeks in advance, is $14 for the 40-mile trip compared with a $12.75 fare for the 62-mile New Haven-Springfield journey on both CTRail and Amtrak shuttles regardless of when purchased. The Valley Flyer fare jumps to $18 for tickets bought within the two-week limit.
It is unclear what will constitute a “successful” 2-year pilot program for the new trains, whose schedules are designed to give commuters in the northern part of the Knowledge Corridor a same-day way to travel to and from New York or southern Connecticut. While they also can connect with Metro-North and Shore Line East service at New Haven, passengers’ Amtrak options from New Haven include one-seat rides as far south as Newport News, Va., (weekday train No. 95 and weekend No. 161) and Roanoke, Va., (weekday No. 171). Northbound connections come from trains originating at Newport News (No. 94 weekdays), Norfolk (No. 88 weekends), and Washington (No. 178 weekdays). Northeast Regional and Acela Express connections are also possible to and from Providence, R.I., and Boston.
Ticketing is available at the Amtrak website but as of late Sunday, downloadable schedules for the new service were not listed on that website.
Is there space for the trains to overnight in Greenfield, or does equipment need to deadhead to/from Springfield?
I happened to have the opportunity to ride the new CTrail service from Springfield to Berlin, CT recently. I arrived from Boston on a modern Peter Pan Bus Line bus in Springfield about 20 minutes early. The bus was about 1/2 full. The renovated Springfield station was much better than the empty hulk it had been but don’t expect turn of the century elegance. It is very utilitarian with a Subway sandwich shop and a Dunkin Donuts as the only food choices. The same old crumbling platforms greet the passengers although there are new high level platforms under construction. My train left on-time with all of 3 passengers (including me) on board. We picked up a couple more along the way and had a grand total of 5 arriving in Hartford where a few more boarded. I detrained in Berlin with no one else boarding or detraining.
The phrase “It is unclear what will constitute a “successful” 2-year pilot program for the new trains,…” is particularly relevant here because it would appear that the CTrail service is not a success with about 25 passengers occupying 3 coaches out of Hartford. The one conductor was hardly kept busy. Granted this was a mid-day train but I have not seen any ridership figures for the service in its entirety. I would think that the extensions mentioned in the above articles would be even less successful due to fares and inconvenience. While Patricia Quinn of NEPRA in Maine continues to cite how “successful” the Brunswick extension of the Downeaster is she only provides amounts of passengers for the Downeaster as a whole (a lot of whom are commuters that drive up passenger counts) and not the extension separately. I doubt if the proclamations from the DOTs of Connecticut and Massachusetts will be any different with this new service..
Robert, here is some data on CTrail ridership:
https://www.masslive.com/news/2019/06/ctrail-ridership-in-springfield-totals-11k-after-first-year-union-station-welcomed-25-million-passengers.html
Bill, recent information here in VT points toward a 2021 commencement of service to Montreal. The preclearance facility in Montreal has not yet been fully approved in Canada, and construction, thus, has yet to begin.
So when can we expect the VERMONTER extension?