BELLOWS FALLS — Green Mountain Railroad will not be running its Green Mountain Flyer excursions out of Bellows Falls next year, Deborah Murphy, manager of passenger service for Vermont Rail Systems, confirmed last week - a consequence of increasing demand on the company for freight transportation.
The Santa Express trains that were run between Bellows Falls and Chester Depot last Saturday and Sunday were the last scheduled passenger runs on the line for the foreseeable future.
For now, the Depot remains open for intermodal services related to Greyhound and Amtrak, according to Destination Bellows Falls (DBF) president Gary Fox.
Regular hours for Greyhound ticketing, and the Greyhound embarkation and debarkation point in Bellows Falls, will continue, Fox said, and the station will remain open for the daily northbound and southbound stops for Amtrak's Vermonter.
Whether the intermodal service center will move its operations to the Waypoint Center across the street in the spring remains to be seen, Fox said.
“We are considering proposals,” Fox said.
There are no plans, for now, to dismantle the historic depot, according to Murphy.
“Gosh, I certainly hope not,” she said. “That would certainly be a shame.”
Murphy does not see the DBF lease with Green Mountain Railroad changing before it expires in the spring.
“We have contracts with Amtrak and Destination Bellows Falls,” Murphy said, so the depot building will still be in use.
Fox noted the Waypoint Center had been designed and built with intermodal transportation in mind.
“Long buses can pull up [and discharge their passengers] with ease in the parking lot,” Fox said. Shelter and facilities are available.
He noted that rail passengers could potentially embark and disembark there as well.
Fox remarked that should the Depot fall out of use by both the railroad and the intermodal center, “there are many uses it could be put to that would celebrate its cultural heritage.”
However, Fox noted, “it would have to be a function that makes sense economically.”
A victim of success
Murphy said Vermont Rail Systems made the choice to focus on moving freight on the Bellows Falls to Rutland line because “it comes down to not enough room on the rails for two trains at a time.”
“We've gotten so busy with our freight-related traffic that we need the extra scheduling freedom to accommodate increased Vermont Rail System freight traffic,” she said. “With the schedules for passenger train employees mandated by the Federal Railroad Administration, it's difficult to find people who can work the necessary schedules to accommodate passenger rail traffic.”
Besides scheduling, Murphy said there there aren't enough sidings - or pull-off spots for passing trains - to accommodate the scenic trains as well as the freight traffic, and that it would be too expensive to build them.
In a previous interview, Murphy said that Vermont Rail Systems' main focus is freight hauling, which provides the railroad's major source of revenue. Green Mountain Railroad cut back service for the Green Mountain Flyer to Fridays only this year, and relocated the passenger service offices to White River Junction.
While the Green Mountain Flyer is being discontinued, Vermont Rail Systems still offers scenic train service in White River Junction and occasional special trains in Burlington.