I was excited about the two New York City-bound morning trains stopping in Greenfield and Northampton. A dream come true for people like me who have to travel to the Big Apple for work.
Then I actually did it, and discovered two problems — one big and one small — that are killing the dream. The small one is parking. It’s $18 a night to park by the train station. That’s nearly double what it costs to valet park in Springfield. The big one is what happens when the train gets to Springfield. The train has to actually back in to the station — a complex move that took an extra 10 minutes. Then the train sits at the Springfield station for 15 minutes or so. All told, you start riding south from Springfield nearly 90 minutes after getting on the train in Northampton.
Perhaps this works for folks on vacation, but it’s untenable for business commuters. If officials simply tighten the schedule, we could have shaved nearly 30 minutes off the trip. I’m grateful to the amazing people behind the nonprofit organization Trains In The Valley, and the forward-thinking government officials who have made this possible.
But if they don’t figure out solutions to these issues, the current two-year pilot project for this new service will likely end in failure. And nobody wants that.
Josh Silver
Florence