Engineer Spike wrote:From the last post, it appears that the Commonwealth is trying to control the Pittsfield to N. Adams corridor, in case passenger service starts on the former NH Berkshire Division.
It may be a long shot, but they have the college in NA. This would require relaying the track between P'field and Adams. If Ethan Allen does end up running via Hoosic Jct., this service could connect the whole US 7 corridor.
It is good to see public transportation means extended past Worcester. The Conn River project is a first sign of this. It is good to see W. MA getting some attention. I used to live there, and it is forgotten about on Beacon Hill. A cousin who grew up there says he is from the State of Western Massachusetts. This shows how diverse it is from the Boston metri area.
That's a very very remote possibility given that they just finished laying the paved trail between Berkshire Mall Rd. in Pittsfield and Hoosac St. in Adams. The line is landbanked and owned by MassDOT, so they do already control the midsection. CSX still owns the Coltsville Industrial Track at the southern tip, even though HRCC operated it and it's been embargoed for years. If they're scooping up the Adams end from PAS it won't exactly be hard to gain the Coltsville end. There's no business that'll ever be likely to return to it past the yard and the immediate B&A abutters south of Merrill Rd.
Stupid abandonment. Guilford definitely jumped the gun and probably should've dangled it to Housy so it lingered on. The Berkshire Line passenger proposal is bonkers as long as HRCC is the landlord and the track conditions are too dangerous even for freight. But it loses critical connectivity not being able to tie at all to North Adams. Or tie in to the PAS main and be able to thru-route ski trains or Appalacian Trail/camping excursions via North Bennington and the to-be-upgraded Western Corridor/future Ethan Allen route. Any additional population centers on that corridor other than Pittsfield makes a big difference given how sparse it is overall. But even if the will is there to eventually reactivate the P&NA, it's tougher than most potential reactivations when it's a full-paved trail they'd have to tear up or rebuild as rail-with-trail. That's really hard to justify on value-for-money.