Passengers board the first Berkshire Flyer Amtrak train to Pittsfield at Penn Station in New York City last July. The Berkshire Flyer is back for another season, but it's long-term future remains unclear.
PITTSFIELD — When local planners, transportation consultants and politicians excitedly presented the plan for the Berkshire Flyer in 2018, measuring the success of the proposed passenger rail line between Pittsfield and New York was simple.
For the line to be a success it would — over the course of a two-year pilot — need to achieve about 2,600 one-way trips, develop a “last mile” local transportation plan to get visitors to Berkshire County around to their final destination and attract regional partners to help with marketing and coordinating.
A pandemic and a last-minute agreement between Amtrak and CSX over use of the rail line delayed putting the passenger line to the test.
Now some five years on and with the Flyer starting its first full 20-week pilot season, stakeholders say they’re excited to see what the line can really do.
While officials from the involved rail lines, transportation departments and local partners say they’re encouraged by the enthusiasm last year’s truncated season produced, the standards for what will give the Flyer a green light or red light is a lot less clear.
‘Do-over’
When the Flyer first left New York City’s Penn Station last July, there was every indication that the shortened season would count as year one of two for state and rail officials measuring the pilot’s success — and the ultimate longevity of the line.
Eddie Sporn, the local coordinator for the Berkshire Flyer, said state officials have now told local partners that they get a “do-over” due to the quickness in which the late-starting season came together.
“We had no real sense of how it went against expectations because it started late and because it sort of came together quickly and we really didn’t do much marketing in advance,” Sporn said.
“From [the state’s] perspective, last year was not sufficient to get any sort of sense of the viability of the train for the long term,” Sporn added. “So this in effect is year one.”
Measuring success
Making this season year one of the pilot will allow interested parties to see if the Flyer can produce the kind of rider numbers the original feasibility study ballparked for the success of a 20-week season of the line.
Last season, Amtrak reported that over the course of nine weeks 401 people disembarked at the Pittsfield train station on Friday nights and 418 people got on the train at the station on Sunday night. That brings the total ridership for the Berkshire Flyer portion of the line to 819.
Though whether hitting the feasibility study’s 2,600 ridership number will make the Flyer a success in Amtrak’s eyes is unclear.
A spokeswoman for Amtrak said that the passenger rail company currently has no target ridership number for this year’s Flyer season, which started Memorial Day weekend and will continue through Columbus Day weekend.
“We definitely see that there is demand and interest from the customer standpoint and we do want to see how this season performs,” the spokeswoman said. “Once we evaluate how [this season] goes, then we’ll work with MassDOT and CSX together to determine what will happen in years to come.”
Passengers disembark from train cars at the Intermodal Transportation Center in July 2022 after the inaugural trip for the Berkshire Flyer rail line from New York City to Pittsfield. This year’s Flyer season started Memorial Day weekend and will continue through Columbus Day weekend.
“It’s still too early to say,” she added.
A release by the MassDOT in April termed the first year of the Flyer a “success” but said its future still relies on the interest and loyalty of riders this season.
“The Berkshire Flyer service will continue to be evaluated this year to further understand the feasibility and demand of the service before continuing service in future seasons, deciding on its schedule if it is to continue, and identifying specific infrastructure improvements or service changes that may be necessary,” the release said.
Sporn said that local partners have been told by the state that there is funding in the state budget to support another pilot program next year. The rub is the agreement with MassDOT, Amtrak and CSX — the freight company that owns the rails the Berkshire Flyer uses — times out at the end of this year.
Officials from MassDOT and CSX did not return a request for comment.
Photos: Berkshire Flyer pilot rail line completes its first journey from New York City to Pittsfield
The first trip is complete for the long-awaited Berkshire Flyer rail line, which left New York City's Penn Station and arrived at the Joseph Scelsi Intermodal Transportation Center in Pittsfield on Friday.
Purchase photos here.
Passengers disembark from train cars after the inaugural trip for the Berkshire Flyer rail line from New York City to Pittsfield at the Intermodal Transportation Center. Friday, July 8, 2022.
Impact on freight lines
Sources with insight on the conversations between the state and CSX say that discussions of another Berkshire Flyer pilot season are happening but those negotiations are currently bogged down in larger discussions about the state’s relationship with the rail company.
“We don’t have approval for 2024 [for a pilot] and the biggest question is if CSX would allow it,” Anuja Koirala, the principal transportation planner for the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission, said. “Their requirement was if we wanted to do summer trains or any other trains they wanted track improvements at the [Joseph Scelsi] Intermodal Transportation Center.”
CSX has told stakeholders that their concern is how passenger traffic from the Berkshire Flyer could impact the company’s freight lines through Pittsfield and potentially complicate existing traffic from the Housatonic Railroad.
The company has said that if the Flyer were to become a longstanding feature of local rail traffic, they would need another station track to be added to the Pittsfield station to allow for freight to bypass any stopping passenger trains.
“We’re relying on MassDOT to negotiate a new agreement … to run the pilot again next year,” Sporn said. “I’m not privy to these negotiations that are taking place on the state level and nobody locally has been involved or asked to be involved.”
Eddie Sporn, owner of Robin Road Consulting, stands at the railroad tracks in Pittsfield at the Intermodal Center where the Berkshire Flyer rail service drops off passengers. Sporn was the originator of the idea that grew into the Berkshire Flyer and one of the original members of the 2017 Berkshire Flyer Working Group.
Opportunities for growth
The push and pull of rail and state actors has put local partners in a difficult position when it comes to making improvements on the Flyer’s current operations.
Along with the excitement for the new connection to New York and Pittsfield, Sporn sees the obvious areas for growth.
An earlier arrival time to Pittsfield on Fridays would be more attractive to visitors looking to eat dinner or catch a show in the county and kick off their weekend.
It could allow Berkshire-based passengers to take the train back to Albany, N.Y., and catch a train into New York City.
It would also allow Pittsfield to enter into an arrangement with Enterprise and Hertz so that passengers could pick up rental cars at or close to the station. That arrangement has eluded the city because the rental companies close their local branches before the train arrives in the station.
“We’re really up a creek with last mile options,” Sporn said.
Sporn was the originator of the idea that grew into the Berkshire Flyer and one of the original members of the 2017 Berkshire Flyer Working Group.
He helped articulate the standards that would measure the line’s success as well as the conditions that would give the line the best chance to reach those measures.
He knows how important the pilot program and tourist travel is for his ultimate goal: seeing the Berkshire Flyer become a daily train that works for Berkshire passengers as well as New York ones.
Signage at the Intermodal Center in Pittsfield where the Berkshire Flyer rail service drops off passengers. The Flyer is returning for a second year, but it's unclear whether the passenger line between New York City and Pittsfield will continue past 2023.
“We did not set the rules — the rules are set by the state,” Sporn said. “We are living within the rules, we’re doing our best to thrive within the rules that have been set.”
Sporn said that despite the working conditions for the season and the uncertainty of the next, “we’re hoping that based on the ridership that we’d get this year, and the excitement,” that local supporters can “convince the governor and the state that this is a viable service that should be extended year-round.”