I’m just back from China where I took the high-speed train from Shanghai to Beijing, and am writing to ask for you to help raise the profile of the Housatonic passenger rail line with the US Secretary of Transportation and our state legislators. Federal funding could play a huge role in moving the project forward, [...]
No one said it would be easy. We send $38 million a year to the MBTA, benefiting Boston, and naturally Boston wants to keep it. Here's an editorial in the Boston Herald, slamming a project that will connect us with New York: "A Railroad to Nowhere." Is it the Berkshires that is "nowhere," or are they [...]
The Berkshires have been losing population for several decades and are projected to continue to lose population into the foreseeable future. Over the last two decades, the majority of this loss has been among young adults.The Berkshire Regional Planning Commission (BRPC), which also did a study of the economic benefits of passenger rail, is now [...]
Our focus is bringing back passenger train service but at the Train Campaign we are interested in other forms of transport, too. And we welcome discussion and debate, so we’re sharing a debate about whether bus service could be a substitute for trains – or, as we believe, an essential adjunct to rail. Please join the [...]
At noon on Saturday, January 31st, we’ll brave the cold at the historic train depot in North Canaan, CT, to join Rep. Roberta Willis of the 64th District and the Canaan-based Restore Our Railway leaders Todd, Jayne, and Brandon. Karen Christensen, founder of the Train Campaign, will also speak. This is a great chance to [...]
BRPC Concludes Train Station Study, Encourages Towns To Stay Involved By Andy McKeever, iBerkshires Staff The Berkshire Regional Planning Commission's Metropolitan Planning Organization endorsed Tuesday the study commissioned by the federal government and Housatonic Railroad for station locations. Four towns have been cited as the best locations to host stations — Pittsfield, Sheffield, Great Barrington [...]
We came across this article by Great Barrington historian Bernard Drew and were delighted to learn more about the train services that criss-crossed the Berkshires in the past. We hiked a leg of the abandoned Berkshire Railroad in south West Stockbridge in search of a cattle pass. The Berkshire line was chartered in 1837 to continue the [...]
Return of rail service within reach Support grows for this vital aspect of our 21st century transportation infrastructure This article by Karen Christensen was published in the September 2014 issue of Berkshire Trade and Commerce. Click here to download the PDF and see below for link to entire issue. “I know you,” the woman at the tag [...]
This story in the Boston Globe shows that the ten fastest-shrinking towns in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts are those in the Berkshires. The decline and greying of our rural population can be reversed, and put on a sustainable path, by improvements in connectivity that will make the Berkshires not only desirable but practical for young professionals [...]
Someone knowledgeable about trains wrote to ask how Illinois carriages ended up parked for years on the tracks in Housatonic, MA. We checked with Colin Pease of the Housatonic Railroad, who explained that they were surplus carriages purchased about ten years ago in the hope of refitting them for passenger service. From last week: I [...]
