New York To Vermont And Holyoke In Between

On first entering the conference room at the Clarion Hotel in Northampton I could quickly see every seat was taken. I was arriving late to the May 20th meeting because I found it hard to leave Elaine Pluta's campaign kick off before she gave her speech. I really wanted to hear what she had to say so I could get a feel for her Mayoral platform in her bid for City Hall room one. However, I couldn't be in two places at once, so I zoomed up the road to NoHo.

The Pioneer Valley Planning Commission's meeting was already underway. While I stood in the back of the room they opened a divider behind me, and put out more chairs for the standing late arrivers.



Called the Knowledge Corridor Passenger Rail Study. The PVPC, with support from the Vermont Agency of Transportation, is leading the Study to examine possible future rail options within the study area. The study is intended to develop an action plan for improving speed, maximize access, and providing viable transportation alternatives. Key objectives are to improve mobility and spark economic development.



The officials made three different cases.

1 restore the Vermonter



2 expanded inner city service



3 commuter service



Each case needed increased funding over the previous, and showed increasing ridership projections.



All this sounds good, but the plan will cut out Palmer and Amherst, a detour on the Amtrak Vermonter that currently adds 45 minutes to the trip.

After the initial presentation Amherst Town Manager Laurence Shaffer was the first to stand up and speak. He said, "The town of Amherst would like to be a part of the process (study area), and would like to see more consideration for our town - the town of Amherst has a lot to add to this process" adding "Let us in the door".



What Shaffer didn't say was that Amherst has created of a nine-member task force called 'Save Our Stop'. He wants the task force to study the effect that the discontinuation would have on Amherst residents and the region. This is problematic for efforts to bring high speed rail to the valley, and might well de-rail it altogether. The plan will be vying for federal stimulus dollars, and will be rated against similar proposed projects in other regions. The ones with the greatest percentage of local support will get the most money, and as usual Amherst wants fist dibs on any money coming to the Valley. They certainly don't want to loose a project like this to a town like Holyoke.

The PVPC wasn't having any of it during the meeting. The plan to cut out Palmer, and Amherst is unchangeable, and Amherst officials didn't have a moral leg to stand on as they tried their hardest to make a case for Amherst without coming off as against the poorer cities of the valley. In the end they sounded like big babies that couldn't venture on the excellent, well funded bus service over to Northampton to catch a train.



One Holyoke resident summed it all up. "It's a skip and hope from Amherst to Northampton, but it's not a skip and a hop from Amherst to Holyoke, or from Holyoke to Springfield. So if it (passenger rail) doesn't go up the Conn River Line, Holyoke like many things, will be forgotten again, and bypassed - You can't cut these metropolitan areas out - it's not a matter of what town's more important. It's what better serves the Connecticut River Valley, and the people of the Valley". To which another person sitting in front turned around, and said, "That's the best thing I heard all night!"