Nancy Astor, the Viscountess Lady Astor, served in Parliament from 1919 to 1945. When asked about her political success, she said that she took into public life the lessons she learned from her mother.
By bringing back the trains, we could take a huge step in restoring the Berkshires to vibrant economic health, and integrate the best of its industrial past with the best of 21st-century economic development and environmental sustainability.
While the main is being replaced beneath the tracks, traffic will be reduced to one lane, so motorists should expect some delays during peak traffic times. As required by law, a pair of police officers will direct traffic around the clock.
Skeptics of the Berkshire Flyer weekend-only, tourist-oriented concept support instead a daily passenger rail service from New York's Grand Central Terminal via Connecticut and up through the Housatonic Valley to the Berkshires that would include four stations in Berkshire County: Sheffield; Great Barrington; Lee; and the terminus at the Intermodal Transportation Center in Pittsfield.
The service would start out as a pilot program. The plan is to run one round-trip train each weekend during summer and fall weekends between New York City and Pittsfield via the Rensselaer Station, just east across the Hudson River from Albany.
While few of us will miss the tollbooths on the Mass Pike, it’s fascinating to learn that some two-centuries-old tollhouses are still intact in the greater Berkshires.
In his letter to the editor, Eddie Sporn of West Stockbridge writes: "That train to Danbury, Connecticut, has left the station and it ain’t coming back."
Berkshire County's legislative delegation testified before the Joint Committee on Transportation in favor of a bill that would authorize the study of high-speed rail access between Boston and Springfield.
This study would look at the potential for inaugurating rail service from Pittsfield to New York City via Amtrak’s Hudson River line rather than the southbound rail corridor through Lenox, Great Barrington and into Connecticut.
There once was a Brooklyn Bridge across the Housatonic, a wooden one to be sure and intended for pedestrians. But still, why not make Barrington Great Again?
Gary Cane, 75, of Mount Washington was traveling west on Route 23, when the northbound train began to cross the road. Cane, a veterinarian, owned Hillsdale Animal Hospital, in Hillsdale, New York.
"Sustainable economic development will occur because our regions will be far more attractive to young entrepreneurs and investors when we are connected again by passenger rail to New York, and to the world.”
-- Train Campaign founder Karen Christensen of Great Barrington
During a snowstorm, the driver was backing out of a driveway at her workplace at 220 North Plain Road. While waiting to pull out of the driveway onto Route 41, her car was struck by a Housatonic Railroad Company freight train heading south.
