Holyoke, Massachusetts is located just north of Springfield, MA. In its day, the city was one of the largest suppliers of office products in the world and got the nickname “The Paper City”. In August 2015, passenger railroad service returned to the city after Amtrak re-routed its “Vermonter” service on the Conn River Line. The re-route would shorten the ride by 25 minutes and eliminate the Amherst Station on the old route.
Depot Square Railroad Station – Dwight Street
400 foot high level platform
170 foot long canopy
25 parking spaces
Connecticut River Railroad Station
A little over 1,000 feet up the track from the new Holyoke Depot Square Railroad Station you can see the Connecticut River Railroad Station. The station was built in 1885 and was designed by Henry Hobson Richardson. Richardson designed 9 New England railroad stations, including Palmer’s Union Station. In 2014, Connecticut River Railroad Station was cited as one of Massachusetts’s top ten most endangered historic sites. Currently, the station is owned by the Holyoke Gas and Electric Company. Right now there aren’t any plans to restore the station. – See photos below of the Station
Holyoke Express Office
Next door to the Connecticut River Railroad Station is the Holyoke Express Office. This office used to handle packages coming on and off the trains.The building was built in the early 1900s. – See photo below
My Thoughts
Re-routing the Vermonter line would have been a great opportunity to restore this historical landmark and bring new life into this railroad station; the property even has the space to accommodate parking. Looking at the 2011 Holyoke Station Feasibility Study, restoring this station was one of the options on the table. Looking over the report, it would have cost a little over $3 million to restore the station and up to $1 million for the platform. A full station renovation including the platform would have cost anywhere between $5 to $6 million dollars, and with only two passenger trains traveling daily through Holyoke, it didn’t quite seem worth it.
The MBTA wants to expand train service to western Massachusetts, and it would be nice to revisit the idea of using the historical landmark, but it is highly unlikely because they already invested $3.2 million on the new Depot Square Railroad Station. If only the timing was better, with Amtrak and MBTA Commuter Rail service coming to Holyoke, it would have been nice to see this historical landmark restored and used as a railroad station again.
