Brattleboro, VT
The Vermonter at Brattleboro station in June 2013
General information
Location10 Vernon Road
Brattleboro, Vermont
United States
Coordinates42°51′03″N 72°33′24″W / 42.8509°N 72.5566°W / 42.8509; -72.5566
Line(s)New England Central Railroad
Platforms1 side platform
Tracks2
ConnectionsBus transport The Current: 4, 5, 7, 7S, 10, 11, 53, Brattleboro White Line
Construction
ParkingYes
AccessibleYes
Other information
Station codeAmtrak: BRA
History
Opened1915 (1915)
Rebuilt1880, 1915
2022–24 (planned)
Passengers
FY 202213,850[1] (Amtrak)
Services
Preceding station Amtrak Following station
Greenfield
toward Washington, D.C.
 Vermonter Bellows Falls
toward St. Albans
Former services
Preceding station Amtrak Following station
Northampton
Before 1987
toward Washington, D.C.
 Montrealer Bellows Falls
toward Montreal
Amherst
1987 - 2014
toward Washington, D.C.
Vermonter Bellows Falls
toward St. Albans
Preceding station Central Vermont Railway Following station
Vernon
toward New London
 Main Line Bellows Falls
toward St. Johns
Union Station
Brattleboro Museum & Art Center in 2012
NRHP reference No.74000268
Added to NRHPJune 6, 1974

Union Station (also called Brattleboro station) is an Amtrak intercity rail station located in downtown Brattleboro, Vermont, United States. It is served by the one daily round trip of the Vermonter service. Most of the 1915-built station is occupied by the 1972-opened Brattleboro Museum and Art Center, while Amtrak uses a waiting room on the lower floor.[2] The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

History

Early stations and Union Station

Postcard of the 1880-built station

The Vermont and Massachusetts Railroad opened from the state line at East Northfield, Massachusetts/South Vernon, Vermont to Brattleboro on February 20, 1849.[2] The Vermont Valley Railroad opened between Brattleboro and Bellows Falls in 1851, completing the all-rail route between Burlington, Vermont and Springfield, Massachusetts. The three lines became part of the Central Vermont Railway (CV) in 1873.[3]: 171  The first Brattleboro station was a long single-story wooden building, no longer extant.[2]

The Brattleboro and Whitehall Railroad, a CV subsidiary, opened to South Londonberry, Vermont in 1880.[3]: 106  A two-story Queen Anne style brick station was built that year to replace the original station.[2] Also in 1880, the Connecticut River Railroad obtained control of the CV mainline between Brattleboro and White River Junction. It was taken over by the Boston and Maine Railroad (B&M) in 1893.[3]: 173  The B&M opened the Fort Hill Branch of its subsidiary Ashuelot Railroad between Brattleboro and South Vernon in 1913; it was operated as a second track of the existing CV mainline.[3]: 58 

The CV and B&M jointly constructed a union station at Brattleboro in 1915. Built at a cost of $75,000 (equivalent to $1,580,000 in 2022), it was made of quartzite quarried across the river at Wantastiquet Mountain. It was built into a bluff overlooking the Connecticut River, with the first story at track level and the third story facing the street. A footbridge crossed the tracks to reach the northbound platform.[2]

Decline and revival

Brattleboro station in 1972, shortly before the Montrealer resumed service

CV passenger service to South Londonberry ended in 1927 and resumed briefly in 1931. It was operated intermittently by a local man from 1933 to 1935; the line was abandoned in 1938.[3]: 107  CV/B&M passenger service to Brattleboro ended in September 1966 with the termination of the Montrealer.[3]: 175  The Fort Hill Branch was discontinued as a through route in 1970 and abandoned in 1983.[3]: 58  In 1972, the town purchased the disused Union Station building for $27,500 (equivalent to $147,000 in 2022); it was converted to the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center, which opened that year.[4]

Amtrak, which took over intercity passenger rail service in the United States in 1971, began operation of the overnight Montrealer on September 30, 1972. Brattleboro was a stop for the Montrealer from its inception, though a ticket office and waiting room did not open in the lower level of the Union Station building until 1973. Union Station was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.[2] The Montrealer was suspended from 1987 to 1989, then replaced by the daytime Vermonter in 1995.[3]: 176  A two-phase project planned in the late 1990s was to include a new train station; the first-phase garage and bus station opened downtown in 2003, but the second-phase station was not built.[2]

New station construction

Entrance to the Amtrak waiting room

Amtrak and the town announced plans in 2020 to build an accessible full-length high-level platform – the first such platform in the state.[5][6][7][4][8] A $366,000 expansion of the parking area, which involved demolition of the nearby Archery Building, was completed in 2021 ahead of the station project.[9][10] Contrary to local claims, the small wooden structure on the east side of the tracks was not the original passenger station, but may have originally been a freight house or railroad office. [2][11]

The building is leased to the museum by the town for $1 per year. Because it does not own the structure, the museum is not able to raise money to repair the building. In 2018, the museum requested that the town sell the building to the museum to allow fundraising.[12] In October 2021, the town proposed to transfer ownership of the station building to the museum for $1, contingent on Amtrak vacating its portion by mid-2024.[4] The new station will include artwork from the Brattleboro Words Project.[13] As of January 2024, construction is expected to begin in March 2024 and last 18 months. It will cost $7.4 million, with a total project cost of $10 million including design and track work. The new platform will be 345 feet (105 m) long.[14]

References

  1. ↑ "Amtrak Fact Sheet, Fiscal Year 2022: State of Vermont" (PDF). Amtrak. June 2023. Retrieved August 30, 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Brattleboro, VT (BRA)". Great American Stations. Amtrak.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Lindsell, Robert M. (2000). The Rail Lines of Northern New England. Branch Line Press. ISBN 0942147065.
  4. 1 2 3 Mays, Chris (October 4, 2021). "Proposal would make Brattleboro Museum & Art Center the owner of Union Station". Brattleboro Reformer. Retrieved October 12, 2021.
  5. ↑ Audette, Bob (November 19, 2020). "Brattleboro Amtrak station on track for rebuild". Brattleboro Reformer. Retrieved November 20, 2020.
  6. ↑ "Brattleboro Station – New accessible-Compliant Building, Platform, and Track Changes". iBrattleboro. November 19, 2020. Retrieved November 20, 2020.
  7. ↑ Audette, Bob (November 23, 2020). "Amtrak $4.5-million upgrade to start early 2022". Brattleboro Reformer. Retrieved November 27, 2020.
  8. ↑ Audette, Bob (2023-02-25). "Amtrak on track in Brattleboro for first easy access platform in the state". Brattleboro Reformer. Retrieved 2023-10-10.
  9. ↑ Mays, Chris (February 7, 2021). "Ahead of Amtrak upgrades, engineers take on parking". Bennington Banner. Retrieved February 21, 2021.
  10. ↑ Mays, Chris (December 6, 2020). "Amtrak station project expands parking". Brattleboro Reformer. Retrieved February 21, 2021.
  11. ↑ Audette, Bob (December 15, 2009). "Union Station Oversight panel eyes Archery Building". Brattleboro Reformer. Retrieved December 17, 2020.
  12. ↑ Mays, Chris (December 5, 2018). "Union Station sale proposed". Brattleboro Reformer. Retrieved October 12, 2021.
  13. ↑ Mangiaratti, Gena (December 2, 2021). "At masked ceremony, Brattleboro Words Project honored for historical contributions". Brattleboro Reformer. Retrieved December 6, 2021.
  14. ↑ Ray, Virginia (January 10, 2024). "Ground to break for Brattleboro Amtrak station". The Commons. Retrieved January 11, 2024.

Further reading

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Union Station (Brattleboro, Vermont).
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.