Amtrak Trains Will be Full When they Leave Springfield…Soon

The Amtrak train is silent now. We are parked at New Haven, and en route to New York’s Penn Station. I got to the station in Springfield in the dark, the streets empty, and just a few other passengers joined me on this 6 am train.

I thought about what the scene will be like in 2012, or 2013. By then the trains will have begun running south from Greenfield, filling up with passengers getting on in Northampton, and Holyoke. By the time they reach Springfield the cars will be half full. I know that people from the Valley are going to embrace this new service, and more and more of them will experience what I’ve been lucky enough to see during trips abroad.

Train travel is a pleasure…without the annoying mind-bend of traffic, and responsibility of knowing directions, it’s just a simple joy. Get on the train. Go back to the cafe car and grab a coffee. Set up your laptop, chat with my girlfriend via Google chat from her home in Wendell. Write a blog, update Facebook.
Nope, can’t do that on the Merritt Parkway. Just wait, Pioneer Valley. Your trains are coming, and we all will be able to slide down to New York, or even commute here and live in our part of the world too.

Beautiful. Now that’s progress!