Fans of passenger rail service in Northampton were glad to hear last week that the city is on track for improved service. Within the year, a larger two-sided platform will be built at the city’s railroad station off Pleasant Street, and beginning in 2019 more trains will stop there every day.

The additional service is driven by stronger ridership than expected. The numbers show that Northampton is the third busiest Amtrak stop on the Vermonter line between Washington, D.C., and St. Albans, Vermont. According to the National Association of Railroad Passengers, 17,197 people used the Northampton platform in 2016. That is about 75 percent more than was projected in a 2009 study for the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission.

Furthermore, the trips between Northampton and New York City generate more riders and revenue than any other two destinations served by the Vermonter.

“Officials predicted rail service would be popular in Northampton, but interest is so far exceeding all expectations,” says Timothy Brennan, executive director of the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission. “Ridership is extraordinarily strong, even in the face of the reality it’s only one train a day in each direction.”

The southbound Vermonter departs from Northampton about 2 p.m., and the northbound train arrives two hours later. On June 26, regular users as well as new riders were among the 25 people who awaited the southbound train at the Northampton station.

Jake Sachs, of New Jersey, took the train for the first time to Northampton for an a cappella workshop at Smith College that he has attended in recent summers. In the past, he carpooled, but “now I know I don’t have to.” The Vermonter is”certainly very convenient.”

Also at the platform was Joanna Devine, of Northampton, who says, “I ride really regularly because I go back and forth to New York all the time. If there was even one more train, the ridership would be incredible.”

She will get her wish in two years when a pilot program will add four more stops by the Vermonter in Northampton — two each in the morning and afternoon. We’re confident that the large number of rail aficionados in the area will climb aboard for that increased service.

* * *

The pioneering career of firefighter Tracy Driscoll-Horton came to an end in June, 30 years after she became the first female firefighter in Northampton. Breaking gender barriers was nothing new for Driscoll-Horton, who in the mid-1970s at age 11 was the first girl to play Little League baseball in Northampton.

“Girls can’t do that? Oh yes I can,” she says today, still defiant at age 53. “I did everything I ever wanted in life when they said I couldn’t.”

That she had a 30-year career as a firefighter is no surprise because Driscoll-Horton is the fourth generation of her family to take on that public service. Her father, Jeremiah Paul Driscoll, retired as chief in 1989 after 40 years with the city fire department, and three of her brothers also served.

Deputy Chief Tim McQueston, who became a reserve firefighter with Driscoll-Horton in 1987, says, “She wasn’t a woman or a man — she was a firefighter. She did the job and she did it well. She was a trailblazer.”

Driscoll-Horton still has places to go during retirement, hoping to drive cross-country. We wish her well and salute her service.

* * *

Students at the White Brook Middle School in Easthampton are taking inspiration from an international nonprofit to help homeless teens in the area. Last month, they gathered after school to fill 20 “survival backpacks” with toiletries including deodorant and shampoo.

The middle and high school students are members of the WE group affiliated with the WE Charity, which promotes global youth advocacy. They used a $250 grant from the Allstate Foundation to buy the supplies and delivered the backpacks to the Easthampton Community Center, where the WE club members volunteer once a month.They also donated food to the center during the school year.

Robin Bialecki, director of the center, says, “The kids did a fabulous job. I know our clients who receive the backpacks will be thrilled to have them.” According to Bialecki, the center provides food to eight people ages 15 to 21 who are homeless.

We commend White Brook teacher Judith Breier, who started the WE club several years ago, for teaching her students a valuable lesson about community service that makes a difference in the lives of their less fortunate peers.

]]>