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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.
Second-home owners have no voting rights in Massachusetts, so their influence in state and local affairs is necessarily limited. They certainly are permitted to attend town meetings and, in most towns, are allowed to speak at the discretion of the moderator.
Author Alex Marshall will present new ideas about how transportation–including modern passenger rail and 21st-century innovations such as driverless cars–can be designed and managed in the public interest.
In the Berkshires, however, a lot of work has been done to get towns organized for a rail line, like locating stations so there’s at least a good 10-mile run between stops for efficiency.
"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
