Posted on 08/27/2012 11:36:51 AM PDT by matt04
Passenger train service is scheduled to be available here by spring 2014 with a $2 million platform to be built at Dwight and Main streets, officials said Monday.
"This is a game changer for the city of Holyoke," Mayor Alex B. Morse said.
Morse was joined by two congressmen and a slew of officials at a press conference to discuss the project. The event took place on a dirt lot between the end of Dwight Street and the north-south tracks owned by Pan Am Railways where a 400-foot-long concrete platform with a roofed waiting area will be built.
The platform is part of the $17 million the state plans to spend on train tracks between Springfield and Vermont.
The platform to be built here also is a component of what officials are calling the Knowledge Corridor, in reference to the Hartford-Springfield metropolitan region. The area is home to 1.8 million people, including about 1.1 million workers and more than 120,000 students spread over 32 colleges and universities, officials said.
Having train service available will help Holyokers who don't have their own vehicles, will provide links to the Holyoke Transportation Center and its Pioneer Valley Transit Authority and Peter Pan bus service, and will also bring new people into the city, Morse said.
Such a project will increase travel availability and reduce travel time, and that will help bring in jobs, U.S. Rep. John W. Olver, D-Amherst, said.
(Excerpt) Read more at masslive.com ...
Just think of all the unemployed laborers stuck in White River Junction who will now be able to commute to jobs paying a living wage in Holyoke.
Now, if they could only build a spur to the thriving metropolis of Belchertown, Central Western Mass. and the Pioneer Valley would become heaven on Earth.
Was this news reported in ALL of the Holyoke newspapers?
High Speed between Holyoke and Orange!
Just think, shortly our health care will be delivered with this same level of efficiency.
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