Southbound Amtrak train 55 arrived about eight minutes late at the brand new Holyoke platform in front of more than a hundred onlookers and officials. No one got off the train. Holyoke resident Jonathan Warner was among four people who got on.
“I’m going on a round trip,” says Warner, a train enthusiast who says he bought his ticket online as soon as they went on sale. “I’m going down to Springfield where I’m going to lay over for a little bit and then hopefully pick up the [Amtrak train] 56 coming north.”
The 4 million dollar platform is the latest train stop on what’s called the “Knowledge Corridor” between Vermont and Connecticut. The Holyoke service follows similar launches in Northampton and Greenfield over the past year.
Holyoke hasn’t had its own passenger rail service since 1967. Stephen Tracy is among the city residents who’s been pushing for its return. He’s holding a ticket he bought almost fifty years ago but never used.
“I wanted to save one for a souvenir,” Tracy says. “It was the last day of service in Holyoke.”
But is there enough local train nostalgia and excitement to translate into economic stimulus, as officials and business leaders have suggested?
Holyoke is one of the poorest cities in the state, and the platform itself sits in a somewhat barren neighborhood, next to used car and used tire stores, and many boarded up buildings.
“It’s going to change,” says Lori Devine-Hudson, who owns Gateway City Arts, a community center a couple blocks away. “There’s a lot of development that’s going on and discussion behind the scenes. Things are starting to happen.”
Devine-Hudson says the train service could be that catalyst for Holyoke — which is trying to attract artists from around the region.
“The New York people will realize that they can come up here during the week, get affordable space here — because Brooklyn and New York is ridiculous now for artists — and then they can go home on the weekends,” she says.
But for now, only two daily trains will travel north of Springfield — one southbound, one northbound.
Policy makers are looking into more daily trains and even commuter rail, says Massachusetts transportation secretary Stephanie Pollack, “but there are certainly examples around the country of even train stations that have relatively infrequent service, just by being a new investment, just by bringing some folks in to town, they definitely add value to a community.”
Holyoke’s planning director got on the train after the ribbon cutting, though Mayor Alex Morse didn’t. He said his schedule couldn’t fit in a trip but he hopes to buy a ticket soon.