High Speed Train from Vermont, we hardly knew ye

Greenfield celebration of Amtrak service takes a sharp turn into protest | masslive.com

"What was to have been a celebration of Amtrak service at the John W. Olver Transit Center has turned into a sort of war dance over the lack of a ticket kiosk at the facility."

 No kidding. A ticket dance. 

It turns out the new Amtrak train stops here—but you can’t get on it. At least not without a ticket, which you can’t buy at the Olver International Bus (and now) Train Station (a good picture of which is at the link above). You can’t buy a ticket on the train, either—some Amtrak policy—so buying it online is the only option. But, according to Linda McInerny, the artistic director at Old Deerfield Productions (don’t ask) (or do ask), “not everyone's got a smartphone."

I can’t speak for everyone, but up in them thar hills, along the old Mohawk Trail, there are people who don’t have DSL, cable, wireless, any internet—that’s true. How many of them wish to ride the Iron Horse on a five-hour trip to New York City when they can drive it in three remains unclear. 

A train is not really a train without a ticket, though, and the aforementioned Ms. McInerny is doing something about that: planning the ticket dance (which apparently will feature Beatles music) for Feb. 20 at 1:07 pm. Sharp. The dance is, according to the article at MassLive, "geared toward sending Amtrak a message: We want tickets."

No kidding. (Or did I say that already.)

Meanwhile, in Northampton, the next stop down the road, which also doesn’t have a ticket booth, Mayor David J. Narkewicz says no big deal.

"'It's like buying airline tickets,' said Narkewicz, who believes the days of the ticket booth are gone."

Airline tickets? What are they?

CORRECTION: Turns out you can buy a ticket on the train, for cash, but you shouldn’t count on it, according to an Amtrak spokesperson, because the train might be sold out. (Yes, she actually said that: The train might be sold out.)

Also, if you buy a ticket on the train with cash you have to pay the highest fare. 

I’m not making any of this up.