(The following article by Alan J. Keays was published by the Rutland Herald on May 6.)
RUTLAND, Vt. — William McDonald said he still gets a bit of a chill thinking of the arrival of the Ethan Allen Express on its first trip into Rutland.
And it’s not because it was below freezing on Dec. 2, 1996, when passenger rail service rolled into Rutland after a hiatus of more than 40 years.
“I wanted to be part of the reinstatement of something we should have never lost in the first place,” said McDonald, a Rutland dentist and longtime train buff, who was on board the inaugural trip of the Ethan Allen Express. “There was a lot of optimism and enthusiasm.”
A large crowd of bundled-up politicians and residents carried handmade signs reading, “Welcome to Rutland” signs and greeted passengers getting off the train.
The train has linked Rutland and Penn Station in New York City for more than six years.
Rail and local officials said the number of passengers has stayed fairly steady over that time, dropping slightly in recent years due to the downturn in the economy and the increasing fear of terrorism that has affected the entire travel industry.
They also said there is room for growth, especially if passenger rail service could be stretched up the western side of state, with stops in Bennington, Manchester, Rutland, Middlebury and Burlington.
“I think that the ridership has been holding its own pretty much. Of course, you’d always like to see more people doing it,” said Matthew Sternberg, executive director of the Rutland Redevelopment Authority. “It’s a service that still has some growing to do, which I think can be said of the entire passenger rail service nationally.”
The number of passengers on the 300-seat Ethan Allen Express has hovered around 40,000 annually.
Here are the numbers compiled by the state for last five years:
*1997, 35,801 passengers.
*1998, 43,052 passengers.
* 1999, 43,066 passengers.
*2000, 45,177 passengers.
*2001, 41,251 passengers.
*2002, 37,157 passengers.
The numbers appear to be on equal footing this year, said Charles Miller, director of rail for the state Agency of Transportation. “Maybe slightly ahead,” he said.
He added that service was scaled back in the past year. There used to be two northbound trains and one southbound. Now there is only one northbound and one southbound train, he said.
The busiest times are ski season and holidays, Miller said, when train tickets are often sold out. The schedule is adjusted during the ski season to make it easy for skiers from New York City to leave after work Friday and get back to Manhattan on Sunday night.
“If you’re coming up from New York City, then Friday is definitely the busiest time,” said Rick Palmer, a train conductor. “Then going back to the city on Sunday, you have a lot of people, too.”
Gillis Lynn, vice president of marketing at Killington, said that while he couldn’t release specific customer numbers, the train does bring business to the resort. Killington advertises ski packages in New York City to make people aware of the train service, Lynn said.
“It’s certainly a plus,” he said. “We want to make sure people can get here as fast as possible.”
It also offers convenience to skiers who are traveling back to New York City after a weekend on the slopes, Lynn said.
“If you’ve been skiing all day Sunday, the notion of driving four or five hours is a burden,” he said. “It takes away the stress of driving.”
Recent visits to the train station for departures and arrivals revealed a mix of frequent travelers and first-time customers.
They included a soldier coming to visit his parents in Middletown Springs and several college students returning home. There were also tourists riding the rails to go to New York City to take in shows and New Yorkers traveling to Vermont to visit relatives.
Lars and Birgit Nilsson of Sweden said they sailed a cruise ship to New York and took the Ethan Allen Express to Rutland to visit friends in Middletown Springs.
“I love to go by train,” said Birgit Nilsson, 59. “You can see more things around you.”
George Spear, who described himself as a senior citizen, said he drives down to Rutland from his home in Stowe to get on the train to go to New York City.
“I have friends down there and we go to shows,” he said. “I love trains. I just wish the government would give Amtrak more money so they could have a little more modern equipment.”
Neil Frigand, 56, of Morristown, N.J., took the train to Rutland to take in a show here.
“I’ve always passed through here coming from the Trapp Family Lodge up in Stowe,” Frigand said after he stepped off the train. “I figured I would come up for a few days and spend time in Rutland and go to the Paramount Theatre.”
Chris Stoffer, 25, said he lives in Rutland and New York City, and travels by train between the two.
“It’s a great way to go,” said Stoffer, who works in construction. “I just wish it got into Rutland earlier than 11 p.m. on Fridays.”
Ras Chin, 28, of Middlebury said he travels down to Rutland about twice a month to catch a train to Albany, N.Y., where he sells his hand-carved wooden shillelaghs, or Irish walking sticks.
“I have a couple of stores there I sell to and I go pitch my wares,” he said. “It’s such a relaxing way to travel.”
Max Dietshe, 42, of New York City said he is a regular on the Ethan Allen Express.
He said his parents live in Andover and the train is the most convenient way to get there.
“I prefer to do this than stare death in the face on the roads for five hours,” Dietshe said.
He said that while he is big supporter of Amtrak, he wished they could give family discounts.
For his family of five the cost is about $300 to travel from New York City to Rutland on Sunday one way, he said. Ticket prices are $56 for a one-way ticket most days except for Friday and Sunday, when the price is $61.
“There’s no price break for families,” he said. “We just don’t all come up at once.”
Linda Mahoney of Concord, N.H., said her daughter attends Vassar College in Poughkeepsie and the easiest way to go there and back is to take the train from Rutland.
“It’s about a 2?-hour drive to get here,” she said, standing outside the train station. “But it’s a lot easier than driving all the way to Poughkeepsie.”
One thing that has changed dramatically over the years is the money the state pays for Amtrak service in Vermont. Amtrak runs the Ethan Allen Express and the Vermonter, which travels between Washington, D.C., and St. Albans along the eastern side of the state.
At one time, the amount the state contracted to pay Amtrak for passenger rail service was tied to the sales of tickets, Miller said. In 1998, the state paid Amtrak around $800,000, he said.
Amtrak, which is facing its own financial woes, has since called on states to pick up the full cost.
In Vermont’s case, that would be a little more than $5 million after revenues, Miller said. For the past year of service, the amount of money to be paid to Amtrak was about $2.5 million, he said.
“We’re kind of in a mode where we’re getting up to paying our fully allocated cost,” Miller said.
He said he is negotiating with Amtrak officials on a new contract for the Ethan Allen Express and Vermonter passenger rail service. Once the two sides agree on a figure, Miller said he would present it to Legislature for funding approval.
Dan Stessel, an Amtrak spokesman in Washington, D.C., said the company has no plans for making any changes to the Ethan Allen Express.
“Of course, it receives support from the state of Vermont, so it’s in their hands,” Stessel said.
There have been some unexpected twists in the tracks for the Ethan Allen service. Some have complained about the schedule and other have lamented the closing of the train station.
Just last year Amtrak closed all of its ticket offices in Vermont, including the one in the Rutland station. The move was made to save the state as much as $350,000.
The $1 million brick train station in Rutland, filled with brochures and travel information about the region, sits closed for most of the day, except for about half an hour before the train arrives and half an hour after it departs.
“The changes shouldn’t impact ridership,” Miller said at the time. “If you look at the ways people buy tickets for other modes of travel today, you’ll see that it’s mostly done online or over the phone or on the train.”
Sternberg said in a recent interview that the station was built with the long term in mind.
“When you’re building something the scope of a train station, you build it for what you think the future is going to be,” he said. “If it takes a few years to get there, then so be it. When it comes, we’ll be ready for it.”
Ask Thomas Donahue, executive vice president of the Rutland Region Chamber of Commerce, about the Ethan Allen Express and he rattles off a slew of positive impacts he feels it brings to the region.
It not only helps to get people into the region to spend money here, but also gives area residents a convenient way to get New York City to catch a show, visit a museum or do some shopping.
“It drops people right at our doorsteps in Rutland,” Donahue said. “We have passenger rail service and that’s a significant advantage we have over other places.”
One missing piece, he said, is a baggage car.
In 1999, a baggage car was added to train. Local tourism officials who had called for a baggage car to give passengers a place to store skis and bicycles hailed its addition.
However, since the station lacked an attendant, the baggage car couldn’t be used. Amtrak policy called for only company personnel to handle luggage and put it in its baggage cars.
The baggage car has since been dropped from the line.
Losing the baggage car wasn’t a total loss. Miller said the baggage car, which was older than the other train cars, couldn’t run at the same higher speeds.
And keeping speeds up makes the service a more attractive alternative to driving, Miller said. The trip from Rutland to New York City takes 5 hours and 20 minutes.
McDonald, who was on board the first Ethan Allen trip to Rutland, said there are many other benefits to rail travel than strictly economic ones.
“Railroads are such a civil alternative to the auto,” he said. “If you leave your car on the outside of major cities and take public transportation, it’s a nicer experience and it’s easier to get around.”