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New York state is backing Massachusetts’ request for Amtrak to add two more trains from Boston through Springfield and on to Albany in what could be a transitional step toward increased east-west passenger rail service.

“We are still not talking commuter service,” said Dana Roscoe, principal planner and transportation section manager for the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission.

Amtrak’s service on the line is almost nonexistent, the overnight Lake Shore Limited service passes through Springfield in the late afternoon, in both directions.

“It makes it impossible to make the trip to Boston and back in one day,” Roscoe said. “Amtrak envisions a scenario where there is not a lot infrastructure improvements. Just take an additional one train a day and add more.”

That means fewer construction projects adding side tracks and switches to improve service. “More trains sounds good to me,” he said.

But neither he, nor Amtrak, nor the states have a timeline yet for when such service could be initiated.

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation has said for about a year that it’s been talking with Amtrak about incrementally adding passenger service west of Worcester. A July 18 letter from rail and transit administrator Meredith Slesinger to the Federal Railroad Administration seeking to designate two corridors — Boston to Albany via Springfield and Boston to New York City via Springfield and New Haven — was already public.

Designating the corridors is the next step in the state accessing railroad funds in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the law, championed by U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield, that provides $66 billion for Amtrak.

Last year, Amtrak included Boston-Albany on the map of its 15-year expansion plan.

New York’s participation in the effort was reported this week by the Albany (New York) Times-Union.

Glenn Blain, New York Department of Transportation spokesman, confirmed the cooperation.

“The New York State Department of Transportation supports the Massachusetts Department of Transportation’s request for the Federal Railroad Administration to consider funding the expansion of service between Boston and Albany and looks forward to working with them to explore potential opportunities,” Blain said.

Going to Albany makes sense because Amtrak already has facilities there for storing and replenishing the trains, said Steve Strauss, executive director of the Empire State Passengers Association.

“It gives New Yorkers three opportunities a day to go to Boston and to connect in Springfield to go to Vermont and it gives people from Springfield a way to connect in the west,” he said.

Amtrak’s experimental weekend Berkshire Flyer service is sold out, Roscoe said. That service, connecting New York City’s Pennsylvania Station with Pittsfield, had its inaugural run on July 8. It will continue service next summer, too.

Strauss said Amtrak is now selling tickets on that route from Albany to Pittsfield, which was a “deadhead” repositioning trip before the trains would head south to Manhattan.

The Albany-Rensselaer Amtrak station is the ninth-busiest in the Amtrak system. Boston’s South Station where the Lake Shore Limited originates is fifth. New Haven’s Union Station is number 10.

Link to article HERE.