Join the discussion on the following article:
Vermont plan for Ethan Allen reroute concerns Saratoga & North Creek Railway
Could the SNC extend its train to Albany or thereabouts? Just a thought. Hope it works out for the railroad.
Until they can determine how many customers transferred from the Ethan Allen, there cannot be any type of a finding. Even if half were lost, half of zero is zero.
Take it from me, there are a lot more tourists that want to go to Saratoga, a quaint small town with a great main street and access to the raceway, than Mechanicville… Let put it this way… There’s live at Saratoga horse racing, and Off-Track Betting in Mechanicville. Not to mention the Saratoga Performing Arts Center… I don’t even think there’s a movie theater in Mechanicville anymore…
I agree with Mario. Amtrak’s Joe Boardman is from Upstate NY and knows those communities and was NY Transportation Commissioner and would have to be a fool to even consider taking Saratoga Springs off of the Ethan Allen or any other train…especially to replace it with Mechanicville which was primarily a railroad junction town and nothing more. According to the crew, Boardman regularly rides the Adirondack and knows the region. Amtrak and Vermont should concentrate on extending the Ethan Allen up the old Rutland though Middlebury to Burlington - serving more VT ski resorts and colleges and the east shore of Lake Champlain and on to Montreal giving that spectacular tourist region a more robust transportation system. Great for the environment and it would generate jobs!
With all due respect to the very well-intentioned officials and staff who tirelessly work at their jobs in Montpelier and which are financed in part by taxpaying residents like me, and as much as Vermont can and should try to work with New York State to determine equitable shares of costs to operate the Ethan Allen, the notion of diverting that train via a dogleg through Mechanicville over a single-track freight artery that was never a passenger corridor – even if the owner of that line agreed to it – is in my personal opinion an idea that should’ve been laid quietly to rest a long time ago.
With all due respect to the very well-intentioned officials and staff who tirelessly work at their jobs in Montpelier and which are financed in part by taxpaying residents like me, and as much as Vermont can and should try to work with New York State to determine equitable shares of costs to operate the Ethan Allen, the notion of diverting that train via a dogleg through Mechanicville over a single-track freight artery that was never a passenger corridor – even if the owner of that line agreed to it – is in my personal opinion an idea that should’ve been laid quietly to rest a long time ago.
I do not believe there is a solution that would make everyone happy. The residents of western Vermont have been without any intercity public transportation for a number of years since Vermont Transit (now Greyhound) abandoned all service between Burlington, Rutland, Bennington and Albany, NY. The Ethan Allen heads due west from Rutland towards Whitehall, NY, before heading south to Saratoga, Albany and New York.
The proposed route would have the train head WEST towards Schenectady, then north to a junction where it would turn east through Mechanicville to North Bennington, VT. From that point, it would head north to Rutland, and possibly Burlington.
It is an extremely roundabout routing, some who studied the proposal suggested renaming the train the Ethan All Day!
On the other hand, by serving Southwestern Vermont, the route comes in somewhat close proximity to many ski areas, including Mount Snow, Stratton Mountain and Bromley. Let us not forget that the Killington ski area is close to Rutland, and dramatically increasing the length of the trip might hurt ski business to Killington.
The Saratoga and North Creek Railroad has done a wonderful job with their operation, and it would be unfortunate if they lost a valuable connection with Amtrak. Could there be a possibility of extending one of the New York to Albany round trips to Saratoga Springs?
This will be a long time coming.
The track north of Manchester, VT. is 10-20 mph.
AND anyone talked to Pan Am Southern?
They’re not exactly passenger train friendly.
How much will they hold up Amtak and the states for track improvement?
While comments have focused on “Mechanicville”, it is just a town on a railroad route that just happens to run to North Bennington, Manchester on into Rutland, VT fromm the south. Ok, these towns do not “measure up” to SS but if the taxpayers of the Green Mountain State want to route a Vermont destination train via Vermont may I suggest NYers work on an additional train from Albany thru to Montreal. Certainly there are 2 population centers (Montreal & NYC) that should justify more than current one train per day.
Vermont pays $3 million dollars to provide service primarily to/from Vermont and New York City and not destinations in Upstate New York already served by the Adirondack. The state will receive a better return by servicing its own towns south of Rutland including Manchester, Arlington and North Bennington. Mechanicsville is simply the routing needed to proceed from Southern VT to NYC. It is not considered a destination to be served by Vermont’s financial contribution, nor Saratoga Springs for that matter.
Why did expenses increase so much? Is the CP price gouging Amtrak for the service?
I don’t think anyone would argue that Saratoga is a better destination than Mechanicville. However, remember that Vermont is paying for this train, to the tune of $3,000,000. By rerouting it off the NY route to the proposed route the central Vermont corridor towns of North Bennington (& nearby Bennington) could be served as well as the resort town of Manchester and others. Then if the train was continued on to Burlington as some suggest, there would be no back-up move at Rutland as would be necessary with the current route. This reroute makes sense to me. This is a train meant to mainly serve Vermont and is paid for at least in part by Vermont taxpayers. The Adirondack serves Saratoga Springs, the Ethan Allen should serve Vermont.