A big crowd including state and local officials turned out Thursday to mark the historic return of passenger train service to a western Massachusetts city.
Holyoke is now a twice daily stop for the Amtrak Vermonter on the recently built Knowledge Corridor high speed rail line. Passenger trains had not stopped in Holyoke since 1966.
Massachusetts Lt. Gov Karyn Polito took part in ceremony to open the new $ 4.3 million downtown train station.
" And to think today we are connecting beyond the borders of Massachusetts to Vermont and Connecticut and all these stops in between. It really is transformational for western Mass," said Polito.
Ridership on the Amtrak Vermonter is up over 60 percent in Massachusetts since $120 million in rail improvements were finished last December and stops were added in Northampton and Greenfield.
