Joseph Scelsi Intermodal Transportation Center

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Coordinates: 42°27′05″N 73°15′14″W / 42.4515°N 73.2540°W / 42.4515; -73.2540
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Joseph Scelsi Intermodal Transportation Center
Peter Pan Bus
Construction
ParkingYes
AccessibleYes
Other information
Station codeAmtrak: PIT
History
Opened1841 (Western Railroad station)
1850 (Housatonic Railroad station)
ClosedMay 1, 1971 – October 28, 1975
Rebuilt1854 (replacement Western Railroad station)
1866 (first Union Station)
August 23, 1914 (second Union Station)
1965 (NYC station)
April 26, 1981 (Amtrak station)
November 22, 2004 (current)
Passengers
FY 202210,493 annually[2] (Amtrak)
Services
Preceding station Amtrak Following station
Albany–Rensselaer
toward New York
 Berkshire Flyer Terminus
Albany–Rensselaer
toward Chicago
 Lake Shore Limited Springfield
toward Boston South
Former services
Preceding station New York Central Railroad Following station
Chatham
toward Albany
 Boston and Albany Railroad
Main Line
 Springfield, MA
toward Boston
Richmond Summit
toward Albany
 Dalton
toward Boston
Terminus
North Adams Branch
 Coltsville
toward North Adams
Preceding station New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Following station
Lenox
toward Norwalk and South Norwalk
 Pittsfield Branch Terminus

The Joseph Scelsi Intermodal Transportation Center (often referred to as the ITC or the Scelsi ITC) is a transit facility located in downtown Pittsfield, Massachusetts. The $11 million facility is named after Joseph Scelsi, a longtime State Representative who represented Pittsfield.[1] Owned by the Berkshire Regional Transit Authority (BRTA), it is serviced by local BRTA bus services, Amtrak intercity rail service, and Peter Pan intercity bus service.[3] The second floor of the building houses two classrooms used by Berkshire Community College and Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.[3]

Railroad stations have been located in downtown Pittsfield since the

New Haven Railroad and New York Central Railroad
moved to smaller depots in 1960 and 1965, and Union Station was demolished in 1968. Rail service to Pittsfield ended in 1971 but returned in 1975 and moved to a new shelter downtown in 1981. The facility ITC opened in 2004 to combine local and intercity bus and intercity rail operations into one location.

Services

Berkshire Regional Transit Authority

BRTA buses at Scelsi ITC in 2006

The Scelsi ITC serves as a hub and a transfer point for most of the BRTA's routes, though travel to Williamstown sometimes requires a transfer in North Adams, Massachusetts and travel to West Stockbridge and Great Barrington sometimes requires a transfer in Lee. Twelve BRTA routes run from the ITC.[4]

Amtrak

The

accessible.[1]

Intercity bus

Springfield-Providence route. Peter Pan's Bonanza Bus division serves Pittsfield with two daily round trips on its New York-Danbury-Williamstown route.[7]

History

Early stations

The oft-maligned 1840-built station around 1842

The Western Railroad opened from the New York – Massachusetts state line to

Greek columns in antis, was an example of the architecture of railroads combining familiar forms with the unfamiliar technology, a juxtaposition common in Europe.[9][10] Passengers boarded from a dank lower level, and the station was vastly unpopular.[9]

The

Stockbridge and Pittsfield Railroad opened to the south in January 1850 and was immediately merged into the Housatonic Railroad; it used a depot near West Street around 0.5 miles (0.80 km) away from the Western Railroad station.[8] With the completion of the Housatonic, passengers could travel in four directions from Pittsfield: west to Albany, north to North Adams, east to Springfield and Boston, and south to Bridgeport and New York City.[8]

Like many wooden stations of the era, the 1840 depot did not last long; it burned in half an hour at noon on November 5, 1854.[9][10] An 1876 history of the city reported that:[9]

The flames presented a beautiful spectacle, as they swept through its large, hollow, wooden columns, and no regret for the loss of the building checked the enjoyment of the scene. It was never so much admired as during the last half-hour of its existence.

The Western soon replaced it with a more conventional one-story wooden station slightly to the west. Although well-liked, it proved too small within a decade.[9]

The first Union Station

The first Union Station in the early 1900s

By the mid-1860s, the crowded conditions at the Western Railroad station, and its location 0.5 miles (0.80 km) away from the Housatonic station (a headache for transferring passengers) led to calls for a

Berkshire County was authorized to build a bypass of West Street under the tracks to eliminate the level crossing and provide room for the depot. The station was to be owned by the Western Railroad but shared equally by both.[11]

The first Union Station with a Pittsfield Electric trolley in 1906

The new 7,456-square-foot (692.7 m2) Union Station, described as "one of the most convenient and beautiful depots in the country" was quickly constructed and opened by the end of the year.[9][12] The brick structure occupied an obtuse triangular footprint with the long side facing the tracks. All three corners featured a tower, with the front corner the highest.[9] A pedestrian bridge over the tracks connected the station with neighborhoods off West Street and Francis Avenue to the west.[13] The Pittsfield Street Railway opened in 1886 and was electrified in 1891 as the Pittsfield Electric Street Railway; the Pittsfield Electric and its successor the Berkshire Street Railway operated a spur on West Street to bring streetcars directly to the station.[13][14]

After years of feuding, the Western Railroad joined with the

Bridgeport.[8] In 1900, the New York Central Railroad (NYC) leased the B&A, though the latter retained its independent identity for decades after.[8] The B&A operated a rail yard and roundhouse just north of Union Station.[13]

The second Union Station

A 1928 postcard of the 1914 Union Station

Four decades after its construction, Union Station was proving too small for its role as the principal railroad hub of Berkshire County. In 1908 local residents began agitating for a larger station, and William H. MacInnis made it a platform of his mayoral candidacy.[12] In 1910 MacInnis appointed a three-man committee (one a director of the B&A) to lobby the railroad authorities to replace Union Station. Financial constraints at first hampered their efforts. but in April 1912 the B&A agreed to support the project.[12] In 1913, the NYNH&H acquired the former Burbank Hotel property and began constructing the second Union Station.[15] The new station opened on August 24, 1914.[16]

Postcard view of the second Union Station, showing the pedestrian bridge and water tower at right

The new Union Station cost $400,000 all told, with construction of the station itself costing $300,000.

terra cotta trim, the station was more than twice its predecessor's size at 17,953 square feet (1,667.9 m2).[12] A high terrazzo ceiling contained skylights to supplement the high arched windows.[1] The walls were green marble for the dado and "white, green-veined Vermont marble" above; furnishings were polished wood, and the city's seal was reproduced in mosaic on the floor.[1][12] Modern conveniences included all-electric chandeliers, thermostat-controlled heat, an intercom for announcing trains, and a restaurant inside the station building.[12]

At its peak in 1912, the B&A operated 12 Boston-Albany round trips, one Boston-Pittsfield round trip, and as many as 10 Pittsfield-North Adams round trips.[8][17] Around 1913 the New Haven planned to use the Housatonic as part of a New York-Montreal through route to compete with the NYC, but this never materialized and service levels were never high. After 1926 New Haven operated two daily New York-Pittsfield round trips with additional weekend service plus a Great Barrington-Pittsfield commuter trip operated by a railbus.[18] Until 1934 the NYC operated the Berkshire Hills Express between North Adams and New York City via Pittsfield. Afterwards, the company continued unnamed continuous trains over the same route.[19][20] After 1935, nonstop New York-Pittsfield weekend trips were added for skiers during the winter.[21]

Decline

One of the weekend-only Berkshire Division trains at Pittsfield in 1968, shortly before Penn Central reduced the trains to Budd RDCs

Budd RDCs and truncated to Danbury where passengers could change for local trains to New York.[18] In November 1960, the New Haven moved its station passenger services, including the Berkshire and the Litchfield from Union Station to a converted freight house slightly to the east to save money, leaving the B&A alone in the station. In March 1964, the Interstate Commerce Commission authorized the NYNH&H to cut all Berkshire Division services except the weekend trips.[18]

B&A service was also cut due to financial problems in the late 1930s and again after World War II; by 1950, Pittsfield was served by eight Boston-Albany round trips per day.

Springfield, and Pittsfield were closed; Boston-Albany service via Pittsfield was reduced to just 3.5 daily round trips.[17] Still facing losses, the B&A was finally fully absorbed into the NYC in 1961, effectively subsidized by its popular New York commuter service.[8] The crack New England States, introduced in 1938, was combined with the 20th Century Limited west of Buffalo on November 5, 1967. After the latter was discontinued on December 2, the New England States lost its named distinction on December 3.[23]

In 1956, the NYC attempted to sell Union Station to the city for use as a city hall, in order to downsize into a less expensive station.[12] The public was indifferent to the proposal, but the city refused because decades of deferred maintenance (caused by neglecting stations in order to have the funds to run federally-required trains) had left the station in extremely poor condition.[1] In 1965, over the objections of city councilman (and later state representative) Joseph Scelsi, the city council allowed the NYC to build a much smaller wooden station 2 miles (3.2 km) east of downtown near the large manufacturing plants of General Electric and other companies.[1] Although preservation attempts were made in 1966, the Union Station building was too deteriorated to save, and it was demolished for urban renewal efforts in 1968. Some fragments of the station may have been saved.[1]

The NYC merged into

Penn Central Railroad on February 1, 1968, followed by the New Haven on December 31.[24] Penn Central continued to run the twice-weekly Berkshire Division train and the daily Boston-Albany train (the former, nameless New England States) through Pittsfield until April 30, 1971. On May 1, 1971, Amtrak took over most passenger service in the United States. Service between Worcester and Albany along the Boston and Albany Railroad route, as well as all service on the Housatonic, was discontinued, leaving Pittsfield with no passenger rail service for the first time in 130 years.[8][17][18]

Return of passenger service

The station shelter at Pittsfield in December 1975, shortly after the Lake Shore Limited began serving the station

Two weeks after taking over service, Amtrak added the Boston-New Haven

MBTA began subsidizing Penn Central commuter rail service between Boston and Framingham – but not the lone commuter trip to Worcester – in January 1973.[24] Penn Central discontinued the Worcester trip on October 27, 1975; in response, Amtrak revived the dormant New York-Chicago Lake Shore Limited on October 31, with a new section running Boston-Albany and thus restoring service to Pittsfield.[17] The Lake Shore Limited stopped at the east-of-downtown station that had been used from 1965 to 1971.[25][26]

An

Plexiglas bus shelter) with a bare asphalt platform was built in downtown Pittsfield near the former Union Station.[27] The 'station' opened on April 26, 1981.[28] The 1965-built station was converted to a yard office, used by Conrail and later CSX Transportation for their adjacent Pittsfield Yard.[25]

Scelsi Intermodal Transportation Center

A CSX freight train passes the platform at Scelsi ITC

In the late 1980s, local officials began to consider constructing a new station to serve both Amtrak trains and the

John W. Olver obtained $8.615 million in federal earmarks to fund the project; the state provided the 20% local match to reach the full $11 million cost.[1][3]

The Wallace Floyd Design Group was responsible for the station's architecture. Groundbreaking was held in August 2002; completion was originally scheduled within a year but delayed due to an unusually cold winter and the primary steel supplier going bankrupt.

Edward Kennedy placed bricks from the 1914 Union Station into the columns of the new station.[1] The building was named after Joseph Scelsi for his activism regarding Union Station.[1]

The Scelsi ITC houses BRTA offices, a waiting room, concession vendors, and other office tenants. The second floor of the building houses two classrooms used by Berkshire Community College and Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.[3] On May 19, 2013, the Pittsfield Visitor's Center moved into the first floor of the ITC, to be staffed by local volunteers.[30]

In May 2018, the

CapeFLYER, was originally scheduled to begin in June 2020. One Friday afternoon train is extended to Pittsfield and returns on Sunday afternoon.[33] After delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, the pilot was rescheduled for summer 2022 and 2023. The first trip departed July 8, 2022.[6][34]

Pittsfield is the proposed western terminus for East-West Rail, which would provide intercity passenger service between Boston and Pittsfield.[35]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m "Pittsfield, MA (PIT)". Great American Stations. National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak). Retrieved 6 February 2016.
  2. ^ "Amtrak Fact Sheet, Fiscal Year 2022: Commonwealth of Massachusetts" (PDF). Amtrak. June 2023. Retrieved August 30, 2023.
  3. ^ a b c d "JOSEPH SCELSI INTERMODAL TRANSPORTATION CENTER". Berkshire Regional Transit Authority. Retrieved 6 February 2016.
  4. ^ "Berkshire Regional Transit Authority". Berkshire Regional Transit Authority. 8 February 2016.
  5. ^ "Amtrak Train Schedules". Amtrak. Retrieved 8 February 2016.
  6. ^ a b "Berkshire Flyer Passenger Train Service Begins July 8" (Press release). Massachusetts Department of Transportation. April 25, 2022. Archived from the original on April 26, 2022. Retrieved April 26, 2022.
  7. ^ "Peter Pan System Timetable Booklet Effective June 21 & 26, 2017" (PDF). Peter Pan Bus Lines. 29 June 2017. Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 October 2017. Retrieved 19 October 2017.
  8. ^
    ISBN 0942147022
    .
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Smith, J.E.A. (1876). The History of Pittsfield (Berkshire County), Massachusetts from the Year 1800 to the Year 1876. Vol. 2. C.W. Bryan and Co. pp. 542–547 – via Internet Archive.
  10. ^
    ISBN 0300007647
    .
  11. ^ Chapter 126: An Act to Unite the Passenger Stations of the Western Railroad Corporation and the Stockbridge and Pittsfield Railroad Corporation in the Town of Pittsfield, and to Change the Location of West Street, in Said Town, for that Purpose. Wright & Potter. 1866. pp. 94–96 – via Internet Archive. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  12. ^
    Newspapers.com. (second page) Open access icon
  13. ^ a b c "Pittsfield Plate 002". Atlas of Berkshire County Massachusetts. Barnes & Farnham. 1904. Retrieved 22 October 2014.
  14. ISBN 093831503X
    .
  15. ^ Boltwood, Edward (1916). The history of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, from the year 1876 to the year 1916. City of Pittsfield. pp. 106–107 – via Internet Archive.
  16. ^ "Pittsfield Station In Use Today". Boston Globe. August 24, 1914. p. 14 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  17. ^
    ISBN 9780685412947
    .
  18. ^
    ISBN 978-0-7603-2288-8
    .
  19. ^ "New York Central Railroad, Tables 6, 98". Official Guide of the Railways. 64 (9). National Railway Publication Company. February 1932.
  20. ^ "New York Central Railroad, Tables 11, 90". Official Guide of the Railways. 71 (3). National Railway Publication Company. August 1938.
  21. ISBN 9781439628263
    .
  22. ^ "Tables 42 and 44". New York Central: The Scenic Water Level Route. New York Central Railroad. June 17, 1951. p. 37 – via Wikimedia Commons.
  23. OCLC 85851554
    .
  24. ^ a b Belcher, Jonathan (26 December 2015). "Changes to Transit Service in the MBTA district 1964–2015" (PDF). NETransit. Retrieved 6 February 2016.
  25. ^
    ISBN 9780942147087
    .
  26. ^ "All-America Schedules". National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak). 30 November 1975. p. 11 – via Museum of Railway Timetables.
  27. ^ Dailey, Geno. "Pittsfield, MA Amtrak Station". TrainWeb. Retrieved 7 February 2016.
  28. ^ "April 26, 1981: First Amtrak train arrives at the new Pittsfield "train station."". Herman Melville's Arrowhead. 1 December 2015. Retrieved 6 February 2016. April 26, 1981: First Amtrak train arrives at the new Pittsfield "train station." On Depot Street; just a trace remains today. Photos by Edward Knurow.
  29. ^ "BRTA History". Berkshire Regional Transit Authority. Retrieved 8 February 2016.
  30. ^ Therrien, Jim (19 June 2013). "Pittsfield opens new Visitors Center at Intermodal Transportation Center". Berkshire Eagle. Retrieved 8 February 2016.
  31. ^ "News Briefs: Mass. Senate approves funding for opioid prevention services; Mass. Senate provides funding for Berkshire FLYER; Mass. Senate to review small bridge repair regulations". Berkshire Edge. May 30, 2018.
  32. ^ Vaccaro, Adam (March 27, 2018). "A Berkshires-NYC train service could relaunch by 2019". Boston Globe.
  33. ^ Bellow, Heather (March 1, 2019). "Berkshire Flyer group 'ready to take the leap' from vision to reality". Berkshire Eagle.
  34. ^ Britton-Mehlisch, Meg (July 8, 2022). "'Sold out' Berkshire Flyer train is rolling towards Pittsfield, after on-time departure from New York City". The Berkshire Eagle. Retrieved July 8, 2022.
  35. ^ "Chapter 4 – Alternatives Development and Analysis". East-West Passenger Rail Study Final Report. Massachusetts Department of Transportation. January 2021.

External links

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