Adams Industrial Track sale to State of MA

[newpylong]

Courtesy of the City of North Adams:

"Just announced .... The new Hoosac Valley Service, a partnership of Berkshire
Scenic Railway, North Adams, Adams and MassDOT, will begin service in 2014. The
weekend train service will run on just over 5 miles of track being acquired by
the state, between North Adams and Adams."


Seems like a horrible place for a scenic railway but we will see, lol.

I assume a news article will be forthcoming and than Pan Am retains freight
rights.

[B&M 1227]

I don't know if it's that bad a place? I mean, Lenox/Lee/Stockbridge can't have been a whole lot better, other than being close to the Mass Pike. Adams and North Adams are a bit larger in size, and North Adams has Mass Moca and a few other tourist attractions. Other than the industries served by the railroad maybe being a detractor, I think the scenery in that area is pretty good, especially in the fall.

[F-line to Dudley via Park]

Overly short for a scenic, unless there's future aims on it being extended onto the mainline and through the tunnel. That would definitely be a nice trip.


As for selling the line to the state...seems consistent with PAS's strategy for shedding all off-main real estate and going all-in on their prime asset. Adams Branch was probably their single least-valuable holding for attracting any passenger stakeholders, so it's no surprise they jumped at the first outfit that came to them. I doubt it'll have any impact on freights there...traffic levels seem pretty steady, and a couple scenic trips on a weekend don't introduce any impacts. Do freights even run on the weekend down there?

[frrc]

Wonder what MA DOT (aka the taxpayers) paid for the line ?

[newpylong]

I wish them the best and hope it's good for my hometown (North Adams) and the area.

Pan Am does retain freight rights, and if service sticks to weekends it shouldnt effect freight. The branch is only switched on the weekends if for some reason it got skipped during the week, and that is a rarity these days where the customers are better taken care of.

I don't see it happening but I think it could really take off if they are ever allowed through the tunnel. I always have said an ideal scenic ride would be North Adams to Shelburne Falls (or maybe to Greenfield with the new station being built). You have the tunnel, the river, foliage, you name it. I can see them doing it if they can somehow sell the tunnel to the state (I know laugh it up) to avoid liability. Time will tell.

For now it looks like they are going to load in the area of the yard where the runaround is. There is a lot of room down there and they won't have to open up onto the mainline or have people cross the mainline. I can only assume they will build some type of shed for the engine to do minor work. With Deerfield so close, they will be set up well to get heavier work done.

I just hope this isn't the beginning of the end of freight on the branch. Hopefully with them not having to pay for maintenance or property taxes there isn't an incentive to go away all together.

I also wonder what we paid for it...hopefully not much.

[B&M 1227]

I would love to ride from Greenfield up to the Tunnel and maybe North Adams, but could you really sell a 10 minute ride in the dark to passengers? Maybe a dinner train could work, but for a round trip, 20 minutes would be taken up with darkness and no nice scenery. Pan Am seems to be much more reasonable these days, so maybe this could happen, but for now I think Adams-North Adams should suffice.

If we're dreaming, I'd love to see the corkscrew between Bennington and Petersburg pieced back together. That would be an intensely scenic route!

[F-line to Dudley via Park]

http://www.iberkshires.com/story/43054/ ... Adams.html

Costs not established, but it involves constructing 1 extra mile of track from the end of the line, shared as rail-with-trail on a short portion, so the service reaches downtown Adams. Pan Am granted freight rights on the new track in the extremely unlikely event they have to run there.


So, neato...genuine restoration of landbanked rail mileage in the state of Massachusetts. That doesn't happen real often.

[Red Wing]

As I said in another post too bad the rails didn't go all the way to Cheshire. Then you would have some great scenery.

[newpylong]

Yes, as everyone is finding out these days, a lot of rails were ripped up prematurely...

North Adams to Pittsfield would be a pretty nice scenic route without much if any freight to contend with.

[F-line to Dudley via Park]

Yes, as everyone is finding out these days, a lot of rails were ripped up prematurely...

North Adams to Pittsfield would be a pretty nice scenic route without much if any freight to contend with.

At the very least with Housy pissing away the Coltsville Industrial Track and leaving it embargoed for the last few years, they should extend the trail down to Merrill Rd. Pittsfield before the yard and stripe some on-street bike lanes to downtown Pittsfield. Ride a bike up through pretty country...run the scenic service with some bike racks. Hopefully if they get privileges in the future to run on the mainline flag-stop at the Appalacian Trail in North Adams, which picks up just a couple hundred feet away from the ROW. There's a lot of multi-modal options here if they get creative enough.

[Red Wing]

Yes, as everyone is finding out these days, a lot of rails were ripped up prematurely...

North Adams to Pittsfield would be a pretty nice scenic route without much if any freight to contend with.

Off Topic but, in my dream world the Ethan Allen would have been relocated to Housatonic up the western side of Connecticut through Pittsfield and North Adams, then up the western side of Vermont from North Bennington to Burlington. A person can dream.

[CVRA7]

As far as the ride goes, I recently followed the line using Bing Maps (less foliage shwing than Google) and the scenery does not look to be as bad as some are claiming. We also went up Mt Greylock and looked down at part of the line so there will be plenty of distant hills to see.
As far as "how much is this costing the taxpayers" I would say not much at all to each taxpayer, and I am sure that there are far worse places where tax money is spent. As a former resident of western Mass I am happy that taxpayer dollars are now being spent on railroads there for a change instead of just mostly east of Worcester.

[newpylong]

I am not a fan of what I consider needless spending by the state recently but it is good to see some effort/money being put into the forgotten portion of the state (ie Metro Albany for the most part).

[jaymac]

It would also not be a surprise to see some Circle-T branding as a way of figuratively and literally bringing home to the voters and legislators of the slopes -- east and west -- of the Berkshires that the Circle-T serves more than Boston.

[Hux]

Judging by the the plan put forth by Governor Patrick they are talking about more than just scenic excursions.

That is aimed at rail: South Coast Rail ($1.8 billion), a Green Line extension to Somerville and Medford ($674 million, to match anticipated federal funds), expansion and reconstruction of South Station to accommodate nearly twice as many trains ($850 million), extension of east-west commuter rail from Boston to Springfield ($362 million), enhancement of north-south freight lines in the Berkshires to connect with Metro-North and Amtrak passenger lines through Connecticut to New York City ($114 million), and rail and infrastructure improvements to restart summer passenger trains between Boston and Cape Cod ($21 million).