The ''Berkshire Flyer'' is a seasonal

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada ...

passenger train service between

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

and the Berkshire Mountains in

Pittsfield, Massachusetts Pittsfield is the largest city and the county seat of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the principal city of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Berkshire County. Pittsfield� ...

, via the

Hudson Valley The Hudson Valley (also known as the Hudson River Valley) comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in the U.S. state of New York. The region stretches from the Capital District including Albany and Troy south to ...

. The weekly train departs

Penn Station Pennsylvania Station is a name applied by the Pennsylvania Railroad to several of its grand passenger terminals. Pennsylvania Station or Penn Station may also refer to Current train stations * Baltimore Penn Station * Pennsylvania Station (Cinc ...

on Friday afternoons during the summer and returns on Sundays. The route's inaugural season ran from July 8 to September 5, 2022, as part of a

pilot program A pilot study, pilot project, pilot test, or pilot experiment is a small-scale preliminary study conducted to evaluate feasibility, duration, cost, adverse events, and improve upon the study design prior to performance of a full-scale research pr ...

set to run through summer 2023.

History

In 2014, Massachusetts proposed moving ahead with plans for

commuter rail Commuter rail, or suburban rail, is a passenger rail transport service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting Commuting, commuters to a Downtown, central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter towns. Generally commuter r ...

service between the Berkshires and New York City. Eight round trips per day would have followed the

Housatonic Railroad The Housatonic Railroad ( ) is a Class III railroad operating in southwestern New England and eastern New York. It was chartered in 1983 to operate a short section of ex-New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad in northwestern Connecticut, an ...

from Pittsfield through

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capita ...

Southeast, New York Southeast is a town in Putnam County, New York, United States, so named for its location in the southeastern corner of the county. The population was 18,058 at the 2020 census. The town as a whole is informally referred to as Brewster, the town' ...

, where they would have taken the

Harlem Line The Metro-North Railroad Harlem Line, originally chartered as the New York and Harlem Railroad, is an commuter rail line running north from New York City to Wassaic, in eastern Dutchess County. The lower from Grand Central Terminal to Sou ...

to Grand Central Terminal. Four stops were proposed in Berkshire County: Pittsfield, Lee, Great Barrington, and

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire a ...

. The commuter rail project failed to progress due to disinterest from the administration of

Connecticut Governor The governor of Connecticut is the head of government of Connecticut, and the commander-in-chief of the state's military forces. The governor has a duty to enforce state laws, and the power to either approve or veto bills passed by the Connecticu ...

Dannel Malloy Dannel Patrick Malloy (; born July 21, 1955) is an American politician, who served as the 88th governor of Connecticut from 2011 to 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he chaired the Democratic Governors Association from 2016 to 2017. On Jul ...

. In 2017, the

Massachusetts legislature The Massachusetts General Court (formally styled the General Court of Massachusetts) is the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The name "General Court" is a hold-over from the earliest days of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, w ...

began new efforts toward a summer tourist train, not commuter rail, between New York City and the Berkshires. Eddie Sporn, a Berkshire-based consultant, was researching the topic of restoring passenger rail service and sent an outline of plans to State Senator

Adam Hinds Adam G. Hinds is an American politician. He currently serves as a State Senator in the Massachusetts Senate representing the district of Berkshire, Hampshire, Franklin and Hampden. Hinds previously worked for the United Nations in the Middle Ea ...

. The plan for the "Berkshire Flyer" was modeled on the CapeFLYER, a popular seasonal train between

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

and

Cape Cod Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of mainland Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer mont ...

. The proposal routed the train on the

Empire Corridor The Empire Corridor is a passenger rail corridor in New York State running between Penn Station in New York City and . Major cities on the route include Poughkeepsie, Albany, Schenectady, Amsterdam, Utica, Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo. ...

through

New York State New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. stat ...

rather than Connecticut. In September the legislature empaneled a working group consisting of

MassDOT The Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) oversees roads, public transit, aeronautics, and transportation licensing and registration in the US state of Massachusetts. It was created on November 1, 2009, by the 186th Session of t ...

representatives, government officials, business leaders, and involved citizens to work on the project. MassDOT released a ''Berkshire Flyer'' feasibility study in March 2018 in which three alternatives were studied. The first option (which was ultimately selected) was to extend an ''

Empire Service The ''Empire Service'' is an Inter-city rail service operated by Amtrak within the state of New York in the United States. The brand name originated with the New York Central Railroad in 1967. Trains on the line provide frequent daily service ...

'' round trip from to Pittsfield. The second option would have added a new limited-stop express train on this route, saving 10 to 12 minutes. The third would have added a new train that skipped Albany–Rensselaer by traversing the Schodack Subdivision, cutting and saving 20 minutes.

NYSDOT The New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) is the department of the New York state government responsible for the development and operation of highways, railroads, mass transit systems, ports, waterways and aviation facilities in ...

stated it would not support a service that did not stop at all Empire Corridor stations. The report also raised the possibility of a new Amtrak station in

Chatham, New York Chatham is a town in Columbia County, New York, United States. The population was 4,104 at the 2020 census, down from the 2010 census. The town has a village also called Chatham on its southern town line. The town is at the northern border of ...

, but this was not evaluated due to its large capital costs. In May 2018, the

Massachusetts Senate The Massachusetts Senate is the upper house of the Massachusetts General Court, the bicameral state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Senate comprises 40 elected members from 40 single-member senatorial districts in the st ...

approved funds for a two-year pilot of the ''Berkshire Flyer''. The service would be a seasonal extension of a weekend ''Empire Service'' round trip to Pittsfield. The trial was scheduled to begin in June 2020, but was delayed due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

and outstanding questions around the program's legal sponsorship. The pilot was rescheduled for summers 2022 and 2023. In April 2022, Amtrak announced that the first trip would depart on July 8. Tickets went up for sale on May 25, starting at $45 one way. Service began as announced on July 8, 2022, with train 1235 departing on-time from Penn Station. Several local and state officials were aboard the first train, while others greeted it in Pittsfield. The season ended with a southbound trip on September 5, running on Labor Day instead of Sunday. Feedback on the route was positive, though many passengers desired the option to spend more time in Pittsfield, saying the limited schedule was inconvenient. Supporters hope the schedule can be expanded for the 2023 season.

Service

As scheduled, the ''Berkshire Flyer'' departs

New York Penn Station Pennsylvania Station, also known as New York Penn Station or simply Penn Station, is the main intercity railroad station in New York City and the busiest transportation facility in the Western Hemisphere, serving more than 600,000 passengers ...

on Fridays at 3:16 PM and arrives at

Joseph Scelsi Intermodal Transportation Center The Joseph Scelsi Intermodal Transportation Center (often referred to as the ITC or the Scelsi ITC) is a transit facility located in downtown Pittsfield, Massachusetts. The $11 million facility is named after Joseph Scelsi, a longtime State Repr ...

in Pittsfield at 7:12 PM. The reverse trip is made Sundays, departing Pittsfield at 3:00 PM and arriving at Penn Station at 7:05 PM. Intermediate stops are made in both directions at , , , , , and Albany–Rensselaer, the same stops as a typical ''Empire Service'' train. In Pittsfield, passengers are welcomed by "ambassadors" who provide information and assist in

wayfinding Wayfinding (or way-finding) encompasses all of the ways in which people (and animals) orient themselves in physical space and navigate from place to place. Wayfinding software is a self-service computer program that helps users to find a location, ...

Route details

The ''Berkshire Flyer'' operates over CSX Transportation, Metro-North Railroad, and Amtrak trackage: *CSX

Berkshire Subdivision The Berkshire Subdivision is a railroad line owned by CSX Transportation in the U.S. states of Massachusetts and New York. The line runs from near Springfield, Massachusetts west to Schodack, New York, (near Albany) along a former New York Cen ...

: Pittsfield to

Schodack, New York Schodack is a town in Rensselaer County, New York, United States. The population was 12,965 at the 2020 census. The town name is derived from the Mahican word, Escotak. The town is in the southwestern part of the county. Schodack is southeast of ...

*Amtrak Post Road Branch: Schodack to Rensselaer *CSX

Hudson Subdivision The Amtrak Hudson Line, also known as the CSX Hudson Subdivision, is a railroad line owned by CSX Transportation and leased by Amtrak in the U.S. state of New York. The line runs from Poughkeepsie north along the east shore of the Hudson River ...

: Rensselaer to

Poughkeepsie Poughkeepsie ( ), officially the City of Poughkeepsie, separate from the Town of Poughkeepsie around it) is a city in the U.S. state of New York. It is the county seat of Dutchess County, with a 2020 census population of 31,577. Poughkeepsie ...

(leased to Amtrak) *Metro-North Railroad Hudson Line: Poughkeepsie to Spuyten Duyvil *Amtrak

Empire Connection The West Side Line, also called the West Side Freight Line, is a railroad line on the west side of the New York City borough of Manhattan. North of Penn Station, from 34th Street, the line is used by Amtrak passenger service heading north via ...

: Spuyten Duyvil to New York Penn Station Though the ''Berkshire Flyer'' is the first and only Amtrak train to offer a direct ride between New York City and Pittsfield without layovers, all sections of the route are served by other Amtrak trains. The line between New York City and Rensselaer is part of Amtrak's Empire Corridor, while service between Rensselaer and Pittsfield is provided by the ''

Lake Shore Limited The ''Lake Shore Limited'' is an overnight Amtrak intercity passenger train that runs between Chicago and either New York City or Boston via two sections east of Albany. The train began service in 1975; its predecessor was Amtrak's Chicago– ...

''.

Stations

References

External links

The Berkshire Flyer
, 1Berkshires
''Berkshire Flyer'' – Amtrak
{{Amtrak routes Amtrak routes Passenger rail transportation in Massachusetts Passenger rail transportation in New York (state) Railway services introduced in 2022