It seems ironic that a train named for a legendary Vermonter comes to a halt almost as soon as it enters the Green Mountain State! But every mid-day a train departs New York City, glides up the scenic Hudson Valley, stops in Saratoga but only sticks it's nose into Vermont at Fairhaven and Rutland. Unlike the real Ethan Allen, it leaves Vermont for New York. Whenever it comes back, it quits.
It’s time for this train to live up to its name: let it service Vermont’s Western Corridor as well!
Greyhound has absorbed Vermont Transit and no longer serves passengers up and down the western edge of the state. Major Vermont cities are thus completely unlinked except by private automobile.
As gasoline prices approach $4 a gallon, we should be able to ride the Ethan Allen Express instead!
Extending the Ethan Allen is actually likely to IMPROVE the financial performance of that train (which runs because of funding from the State of Vermont). The reason for this is that because Burlington is such a larger population center, running the train from there will seriously increase ridership. It's only an hour and a half between Rutland and Burlington, so the additional marginal costs of paying crew and fuel and track expenses for that short distance are likely to be smaller than the additional revenue this extension is likely to enable.
It has been estimated that perhaps 10% of current airline passengers from Burlington would Switch to trains if they were available. Others who now drive would also welcom rail service. The several colleges in Burlington and Middlebury would no doubt contribute a heavy student traffic (as they do now for the Vermonter).
Train service should be available the length of the western side of the state, serving all communities from Bennington to Rutland to Burlington and beyond.
In order for train service to be competitive on this route, some of it needs to be upgraded from it's current 30mph top speed to 59mph. In the scheme of things this is not a large expense, and even better we are excited to report that the money is there, thanks to a Federal appropriation Jim Jeffords managed to secure. VTrans has not yet spent these funds, but we are confident this will happen soon, giving the green light to passenger service.
Amtrak, like all other forms of transportation, depends on tax dollars, which means poltical will. You must let your legislators know that you want train service up and down the Western Corridor. Let them know it's time to get this train back on OUR Vermont tracks!Talking Points About Extending the Ethan Allen
Comments
There's the 20 minute drive to F.H. By train your in the middle of NYC within 5 to 51/2 hours, no delays. Another 20 - 30 minutes and a cab can put you where you want.
By contrast, flying from Burlington requires (for me) 1h.15m. drive to the airport. There's the wait and the whole security business. At the other end of the flight, you're dealing with time to get from JFK to Manhattan. The whole business goes beyond the 6 hours listed here. Changing modes of transportation: Car>Airplane>Cab/Bus/Subway is tiring. Weigh the cost of your own gas (rd. trip), air fare, the cab fare to and from Manhattan (or the expensive time you spend schlepping bags on a long subway ride which requires in itself changes). . . well, you can see the differences.