Vermonter pulls into Amherst station
By Jonah Soolman
Taking the day off to drive from Boston to Waterbury, Vermont, ride Amtrak’s Vermonter south to Amherst, Massachusetts, and then disembark the train only to board its northbound counterpart and retrace my steps all the way back home may strike you as odd.
You have to understand who I am though. When I lived in Amherst about 50 yards from the tracks, I watched the Vermonter pass from one window on my townhouse’s top floor and then excitedly ran to the opposite-facing windows in time to get a second glimpse at the train as it curved around the bend. Getting “stuck” at the crossing gates on North Whitney Street always struck me as fortunate timing despite whatever rush I may have been in at the time.
My favorite bicycle route took me north from Amherst along route 63 to Northfield. The eastern part of the rail trail connecting Northampton to Belchertown, on which I frequently jogged, runs parallel to the train tracks through the rivers, swamps, and farmlands of the Brickyard Conservation Area.
Oftentimes, I thought about how fantastic it must be to take in the same scenery through the lens of a train window. In 2007, I got a chance to do just that when I took the Vermonter south from Amherst to New York City and back. Points north of Amherst though? That was a different story, that is, until a few weeks ago when I learned of Amtrak’s plans to alter the Vermonter’s route through Massachusetts by utilizing tracks along the west side of the Connecticut River while abandoning the Amherst station and the stretches of track so far mentioned.
Although I wished that the route remained east of the river for the sake of nostalgia and scenery, nothing could stop the inevitable change that was about to occur. Amtrak and the other transportation organizations involved with the switch have their valid reasons. Besides, truth be told, going from Brattleboro to Springfield via Amherst and Palmer makes just about as much sense as driving from Philadelphia to Boston by passing through Pittsburgh. Instead of fighting, I made immediate plans to ride those northern rails before the opportunity dissolved.
The ride did not disappoint. Some of the views of the Northfield farmlands and Sunderland forests were spectacular, even in the dead of winter, while my favorite spots were crossing the Miller’s River high above the water and passing over the Mill River Conservation Area gorge. Although I have many pictures from the trip, my amateur photography skills are an injustice to what I saw with my own eyes. If you ever had the experience yourself, you know exactly what I mean.
The Boston suburbs in which I now live are home to many stretches of track that are no longer in use, such as the rails that stretch from Needham Junction to Medfield and from Newton Highlands to Needham Heights. Whenever I see these tracks, I think about what it must have been like to ride them. Now those who see the Vermonter’s old tracks east of the Connecticut River are destined for the same fate: to only ride those rails in their imaginations. For me and for everybody else who was able to ride the Vermonter before the switch, I am grateful that we got a chance to do it for real.
