MYSTERY TRAIN: ‘Berkshire Flyer’ to Nowhere

MYSTERY TRAIN: Given what they are proposing, you have to wonder if any of those pushing the so-called Berkshire Flyer train connection between Pittsfield and New York City have ever made the trip itself – or if they even live in the Berkshires.

The proposal, which will cost $614,000 and is supposedly nearing reality, is for only one trip per week (for only 20 weekends out of the year) bringing travelers from NYC to the Berkshires via Albany – a nearly 4-hour journey that will cost $300 for a couple, only to get them to the Pittsfield train station, from where they will then have to travel another 30 to 45 minutes to get to the most popular Berkshire destinations.

Once in the Berkshires, they will presumably then have to rent a car to get around anywhere for the day and half (the Sunday train leaves at 2:45pm) their stay will last.

The package is being targeted to Gen X and older millennials, who can easily do the maths to figure out that it will be much cheaper and more efficient to rent a car for the trip to and the weekend in the Berkshires, allowing them to come and go when and wherever they please, or to make use of the much-cheaper (by half or less) existing trains that come close to the region already, including the Metro-North train to Wassaic or the Amtrak train to Hudson, both of which are then served by inexpensive cab rides to the Berkshires.

Read more about the plans in the Berkshire Eagle and iBerkshires.

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