It’s been at least ten years since the state of Massachusetts purchased a stretch of rail along the Connecticut River – a restored Knowledge Corridor Line that’s seen passenger ridership rise steadily ever since.
For a Tuesday at 2 p.m., the platform at Northampton is fairly busy, with at least two dozen people waiting for a Vermonter train to arrive. Among them: Gregory Jones of Gainesville, Florida.
“I'm here on a junket - a theater junket - to see shows in New York City and visiting a friend in Northampton,” he tells WAMC, calling the train a decent option for traversing the Pioneer Valley just as it arrives.
People are quick to get onboard the southbound train, with a few getting off, including Gary Jedinak of Montpelier - a Vermonter using the Vermonter. He says he and his companion journeyed to the area to visit a yarn store – and that they’re fans of the line.
“I like it - The Vermonter is always there… the folks that run it are really pleasant, and it's really kind of fun,” he remarks.
Its north-south passenger rail services with stops in Northampton, Holyoke and Greenfield made possible a decade ago, after a $73 million, federally-funded project to restore the tracks running along the Connecticut River.
By December 2014, expanded Amtrak service was serving the cities, connecting them with Springfield – save for Holyoke, where the city’s station opened in August 2015.
By late-2015, Massachusetts completed its purchase of the refurbished, 49-mile stretch of rail running between Northfield and Springfield, Mass. - bought off of Pan Am Railways and capping off the "Restore Vermonter" project funded in-part by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
The anniversary of the $17 million purchase was the subject of celebration in Northampton on Friday, Sept. 12.
MassDOT Rail and Transit Administrator Meredith Slesinger described how it helped mark the return of what many know as the “Knowledge Corridor” line.
“Ridership immediately surpassed estimates, prompting further investment in the corridor and in stations. We actually had to expand the platforms in Northampton and Greenfield to accommodate the number of riders,” she said, describing how thanks to the track improvements, Amtrak service returned to the line for the first time since 1987 – back during the days of The Montrealer.
As Slesinger noted, passengers were quick to take advantage. So much so, it led, in part, to the Valley Flyer between Greenfield and New Haven, Conn., coming to be in 2019 – and made permanent in 2022.
“From Greenfield to Springfield, this corridor proves what is possible when we believe in the power of rail to transform our lives and our landscapes,” said State Secretary of Transportation and CEO of MassDOT Monica Tibbits-Nutt. “Thanks to that initial investment, Amtrak launched the Valley Flyer service in 2019 and the response from riders has been remarkable. Ridership at Holyoke, Northampton and Greenfield stations has quadrupled between 2014 and 2024 to more than 55,000 trips in this year alone. It really shows that if we invest in rail, people will use it.”
It's not every day you see a success like it, says Trains in the Valley co-founder Ben Hecksher. Long cataloguing progress and train news in western Mass., he says the track improvements, including new track, ties and signals, meant a huge boost in speed, too.
State officials say trains can reach as high as 79 miles per hour now - a far cry from years past, Hecksher says.
“The rebuilding of this rail corridor, which was in awful shape - when I say ‘awful,’ the freight trains that used to run on the line were basically limited to 10 miles-an-hour, so … prior to the reconstruction, it used to take them three to four hours to get from Greenfield down to Springfield,” he said in a phone interview. “This has had a very positive effect, not only, of course, for the passenger service that's now offered up and down the Valley, but for the freight service.”
He adds that the corridor’s success bodes well for other local rail projects – namely, the west-east passenger rail project, with its planning and other key work still underway.
Those plans include offering improved service between Boston and Springfield, as well as Pittsfield and Albany service down the line. Construction involving the Springfield-Boston leg is slated to start in 2027.
Until then, there’s always the Knowledge Corridor line (limited trips to Boston are possible via connecting trains in both Springfield and New Haven).
A few more trains rolling on the line wouldn’t hurt, either, says both Hecksher and Jedinak.
“I'd rather take the train down here than driving a car,” Jedinak said as he headed toward downtown Northampton. “We're getting a little older, so [driving] is a little more of a hassle. I always wish there was more train service, and I think in the northeast, it's really good. Sometimes, we'll go to Boston and get the train to go out to other places because they have a lot more places to go to, but I think it’s great - we love the train.”
—
This piece originally aired on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025.
