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Pittsfield gets ready to welcome first passengers on summer weekend train from New York

The first train of the Berkshire Flyer, a new summer weekend passenger service, arrives in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Friday from New York City.

The idea behind the four-hour trip is to encourage more tourists to visit the Berkshires.

AMTRAK is operating the service, which extends an existing train line from Albany to Pittsfield. It can hold about 300 passengers and is funded with $370,000 of state money.

Eddie Sporn, a consultant with Berkshire Regional Transit Authority, has the unusual title of Berkshire Flyer "ambassador." He will greet each train every Friday.

"To make sure everybody gets off the train and gets to where they need to go — whether they're getting picked up, whether they are getting into a van, into an Uber," Sporn said.

Passengers will also be greeted by a new 19-foot wide mural, commissioned by the city of Pittsfield with funding from the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

Pittsfield artist Jesse Tobin McCauley carefully brushed peppermint green paint inside a row of triangles that represent the Berkshire mountains. Her mural will be one of the first things people will see when they get off the train.

The mural includes ten bright colors and shapes that are in some way inspired by the Berkshire Flyer logo. Tobin McCauley pointed out elements of her design.

“These orange and the yellow -- those to me seem like they were windows on the train. And then wheels,” she said. “And that's kind of water; waves, lakes, mountains, sunshine.”

When finished, the mural will also include the words, "WELCOME TO PITTSFIELD."

The train service will have five cars, including one business class coach.

Coach class tickets are selling for $55 to Pittsfield and $77 to return to New York. Business class tickets are priced at $152 each way. According to Amtrak’s website, all business class tickets to Pittsfield on the Berkshire Flyer’s first trip have sold out.

As passengers get ready to board the train back to New York on Sundays, Sporn will try to get passenger feedback.

“Ask them how their experience was and what they would like to see to better, improve -- various things like that,” he said.

Sporn said a long-term goal is to operate the train year-round.

Nancy Eve Cohen is a former NEPM senior reporter whose investigative reporting has been recognized with an Edward R. Murrow Regional Award for Hard News, along with awards for features and spot news from the Public Media Journalists Association (PMJA), American Women in Radio & Television and the Society of Professional Journalists.

She has reported on repatriation to Native nations, criminal justice for survivors of child sexual abuse, linguistic and digital barriers to employment, fatal police shootings and efforts to address climate change and protect the environment. She has done extensive reporting on the EPA's Superfund cleanup of the Housatonic River.

Previously, she served as an editor at NPR in Washington D.C., as well as the managing editor of the Northeast Environmental Hub, a collaboration of public radio stations in New York and New England.

Before working in radio, she produced environmental public television documentaries. As part of a camera crew, she also recorded sound for network television news with assignments in Russia, Guatemala, Mexico, Cuba and in Sarajevo during the war in Bosnia.

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SOMOS CONNECTICUT is an initiative from Connecticut Public, the state’s local NPR and PBS station, to elevate Latino stories and expand programming that uplifts and informs our Latino communities. Visit CTPublic.org/latino for more stories and resources. For updates, sign up for the SOMOS CONNECTICUT newsletter at ctpublic.org/newsletters.

SOMOS CONNECTICUT es una iniciativa de Connecticut Public, la emisora local de NPR y PBS del estado, que busca elevar nuestras historias latinas y expandir programación que alza y informa nuestras comunidades latinas locales. Visita CTPublic.org/latino para más reportajes y recursos. Para noticias, suscríbase a nuestro boletín informativo en ctpublic.org/newsletters.

The independent journalism and non-commercial programming you rely on every day is in danger.

If you’re reading this, you believe in trusted journalism and in learning without paywalls. You value access to educational content kids love and enriching cultural programming.

Now all of that is at risk.

Federal funding for public media is under threat and if it goes, the impact to our communities will be devastating.

Together, we can defend it. It’s time to protect what matters.

Your voice has protected public media before. Now, it’s needed again. Learn how you can protect the news and programming you depend on.

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