Based on the responses (or lack thereof), I’m going out on a limb and say that CSX had not signed off on this. I won’t hold my breath waiting for pictures of happy travelers being towed backwards from Albany to Pittsfield.
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Station Aficionado wrote:I won’t hold my breath waiting for pictures of happy travelers being towed backwards from Albany to Pittsfield.HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
hs3730 wrote:CSX can't even reliably get an on time 449 through that stretch consistently.Well to be fair, I strongly suspect that CSX tries on purpose to be the biggest pain in the *ss that they can with regard to Amtrak.
njt/mnrrbuff wrote:Yes, but I am not sure about how many car rental facilities are in the immediate area of Hudson Station. Looking at a map of the Western Mass and the Hudson Valley near Albany, it looks like from Pittsfield to Hudson, that takes the same amount of driving travel time that it does to drive to Rensellaer. If you are coming up from NYC or the Lower Hudson Valley, then Hudson would be the best option, assuming that you can rent a car or get a ride. If you are coming from Buffalo or Rochester, then getting off in Rensellaer is your best bet since it it is more direct. The issue with getting off at Hudson if you are coming from western Upstate NY is that it is a longer ride on the train to get to your destination.Exactly. The goal appears to be a single-seat ride to Pittsfield where you can have Lyft, Uber, local bus or friends pick you up. Sometimes it's more about convenience than total time.
Greg Moore wrote:I didn't say that it was. I said "If it was..."njt/mnrrbuff wrote:Yes, but I am not sure about how many car rental facilities are in the immediate area of Hudson Station. Looking at a map of the Western Mass and the Hudson Valley near Albany, it looks like from Pittsfield to Hudson, that takes the same amount of driving travel time that it does to drive to Rensellaer. If you are coming up from NYC or the Lower Hudson Valley, then Hudson would be the best option, assuming that you can rent a car or get a ride. If you are coming from Buffalo or Rochester, then getting off in Rensellaer is your best bet since it it is more direct. The issue with getting off at Hudson if you are coming from western Upstate NY is that it is a longer ride on the train to get to your destination.Exactly. The goal appears to be a single-seat ride to Pittsfield where you can have Lyft, Uber, local bus or friends pick you up. Sometimes it's more about convenience than total time.
Rockingham Racer wrote:Since the goal is to bring in folks from NYC, Mass really doesn't care about folks coming from the West.Greg Moore wrote:I didn't say that it was. I said "If it was..."njt/mnrrbuff wrote:Yes, but I am not sure about how many car rental facilities are in the immediate area of Hudson Station. Looking at a map of the Western Mass and the Hudson Valley near Albany, it looks like from Pittsfield to Hudson, that takes the same amount of driving travel time that it does to drive to Rensellaer. If you are coming up from NYC or the Lower Hudson Valley, then Hudson would be the best option, assuming that you can rent a car or get a ride. If you are coming from Buffalo or Rochester, then getting off in Rensellaer is your best bet since it it is more direct. The issue with getting off at Hudson if you are coming from western Upstate NY is that it is a longer ride on the train to get to your destination.Exactly. The goal appears to be a single-seat ride to Pittsfield where you can have Lyft, Uber, local bus or friends pick you up. Sometimes it's more about convenience than total time.
And if you're coming in from the west, obviously you'd change trains at A/R or take the Lake Shore straight through. Hertz and Enterprise are in Hudson. Enterprise isn't open there on Sat/Sun, so that wouldn't work too well, given the proposed weekend-only schedule for the train. I don't know if Hertz would come and get you or not.
I understand the goal of being a one-seat ride. And the folks in Pittfield are quite attuned to having options to continue the journey to a final destination once the train gets there. It's too bad they don't have the money to build an east leg of the wye at Castleton. That would cut at least two hours off the trip.
scoostraw wrote:This is what happens when there is no vision by our "leaders". The Harlem should have been rail-banked like the Housey was."Maybe".
Instead, now everybody is trying to make chicken salad out of chicken $%^&.
Greg Moore wrote:I believe much of the Harlem ROW has reverted to private ownership. Plus the Black Grocery bridge has been removed. Etc. etc.scoostraw wrote:This is what happens when there is no vision by our "leaders". The Harlem should have been rail-banked like the Housey was."Maybe".
Instead, now everybody is trying to make chicken salad out of chicken $%^&.
In theory as I understand it the ROW still exists legally, but I can't see them rebuilding it back to Chatham. Too much NIMBYISM.
The other idea of course is the Housatonic, but that's got huge logistical issues also.
Honestly, I think this solution is better than nothing and could lead to more in coming decades (like more ALB-BOS service taking advantage of the new SPR trains, etc.)
But let's take one step at a time.