CANAAN, Conn. — In a rare moment of bi-state cooperation, local officials from The Berkshires and Connecticut gathered Saturday at the historic Canaan Union Depot to talk about the importance of rail transit and the renewed possibility of bringing passenger service up the Housatonic Valley from Danbury and New York City.
Karen Christensen, who heads The Train Campaign, a Great Barrington-based nonprofit whose goal is to reconnect the Berkshires with New York City and Connecticut, sponsored the event. Passenger rail service in that corridor ended in 1971 but freight service continues.
It was supposed to be a summit of state representatives on both sides of the border, but Rep. Maria Horn, D-Salisbury, could not join Christensen and Rep. William “Smitty” Pignatelli on this sultry July morning, so 26-year-old North Canaan Selectman Christian Allyn stepped in for Horn. Also on the list of speakers was noted British author and railroad buff Simon Winchester, who lives in Sandisfield.
See video below of The Train Campaign event held Saturday inside the restored Canaan Union Depot:
Both Christensen and Allyn harked back to January 2015 when 100 people gathered in front of the empty and unfinished depot to demand the return of passenger rail to the corridor. Allyn was 19 at the time and recalled his speech and the gusty winds and subzero temperatures that accompanied it.
“Two years later, I was elected as selectman and since then, North Canaan has been on a tear,” Allyn said. “To finish the good that’s been started here, we need passenger service. We need that direct line to New York and Boston so that the good people of this world can see all that North Canaan and this region has to offer.”
Allyn was six years old when teenage arsonists nearly burned down the station in 2001 only four weeks after 9/11. The half-destroyed station sat idle for years for lack of grant funds, was subsequently rebuilt, and has only recently gained full occupancy with a brew pub and rail museum.
https://twitter.com/traincampaign/status/1416734501519171585
The loss of the train station left a gaping hole in North Canaan and left the town without its signature landmark. Allyn recalled the words of his grandfather, Paul Allyn, who told him at the time, “We have lost this town.”
Allyn was determined not to let that happen and entered public service, as the elder Allyn had before him. He pointed to a railway crossing reconstruction project underway in front of the depot as evidence that his town was once again on the rise. The restoration of passenger service would jumpstart Canaan, he said. “My generation is driving less and is worried about the future,” Allyn said.
Pignatelli applauded Allyn and said he, too, had learned much from his own grandfather, who emigrated from Italy to Ellis Island and ultimately landed in Lenox at a time when New York’s wealthiest were spending their summers in the Berkshires — or what Pignatelli called the “Inland Newport.” The elder Pignatelli worked for 50 years at what is now Canyon Ranch.
“I’ve always believed elected officials, especially at the local level, need to understand and appreciate history so you can prepare for today and tomorrow,” Pignatelli told Allyn. “So I’m glad you embraced your grandfather’s view of Canaan and North Canaan, and what rail could do for so many.”
Pignatelli recalled that when he was first elected to the state Legislature almost 20 years ago, his driving time from Lenox to the Statehouse in Boston was, depending on traffic, between two and two-and-a-half hours. Now it is as much as three-and-a-half hours.
A link between Boston and western Massachusetts is also important. In January, the state Department of Transportation released a study on East-West rail in Massachusetts, but questions about how to pay for it remain because it’s an open question as to whether ridership would be sufficient to meet benchmarks for federal funding.
Work has begun on the Massachusetts side of the Housatonic line. The state is spending more than $40 million to replace the tracks with modern welded rail after purchasing the rail line for $12.1 million seven years ago. The previous track structure of jointed rail was quite old and so its replacement was necessary even if only to continue the vital freight service. The Housatonic line in both Massachusetts and Connecticut has been plagued with derailments.
The main sticking point on restoring passenger rail service on the Housatonic line is that the project would need the cooperation of Connecticut. Indeed, at that frigid 2015 rally, some attendees showed signs demanding that then-Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy, who refused to support the project, “Train Up!”
The Connecticut Department of Transportation did not respond to a request for comment from The Edge, but a spokesperson told this writer in February 2015 that planning estimates for reconstruction to passenger specs of the existing freight line from Danbury to the state line in Canaan were as much as $400 million.
Malloy told this reporter in an interview that the proposed Housatonic line would cater to tourists headed to the Berkshires and that if Massachusetts wanted the project to come to fruition, then the Bay State would have to pay a substantial portion of the costs on the Connecticut side.
Winchester, who is also publisher of the Sandisfield Times and has at times found himself at odds with public officials in the town, thanked Allyn for his speech and fired a rocket at the current government there: “If only we had selectmen in Sandisfield who had the energy and youth that you represent.”
Winchester, who co-authored the book, “By Rail and by Sea,” recalled Lord Richard Beeching, a physicist and engineer who was hired by the British government in the early 1960s to oversee the British railway system and restore it to solvency. The changes, known as the Beeching Axe, drastically closed hundreds of stations and reduced England’s rail system by thousands of miles.
“There were 17,000 railroad employees who were dismissed,” Winchester said. “Now the lines are reduced to what you have in too many places: rail trails.”
Of the rail lines that were not converted to rail trials, Winchester said, “In their place, we have roads, divided highways, roundabouts, petrol stations, congestion, traffic jams, and pollution. People are realizing now that rail makes sense.”
Regarding the expense of the passenger conversion of the Housatonic line, Winchester opined that it will “be significant money but not impossible money. It will change our lives in so many ways. It will be economical, sustainable and pretty.”
Pignatelli, who was initially a skeptic of restoring passenger service to the Housatonic line, thanked Christensen for her perseverance against long odds.
“This crowd is an indication that the time has come,” Pignatelli said. “I really believe that with all the federal [coronavirus relief] dollars coming into the states, it’s an opportunity to make sure it stays … it’s a multigenerational investment.”
In a fact sheet distributed before the event, Christensen pointed to a 2010 study by Williams College economics professor Stephen Sheppard — and commissioned by the Housatonic Railroad Company — that found the economic benefits of the Housatonic Line of $1 billion in the first decade.
“We’re ready to work with Connecticut, if Connecticut is willing to work with us,” Pignatelli concluded. “Let’s get this thing done once and for all. It’s an economic generator, not only creating jobs, but economic opportunity.”
