BELLOWS FALLS, Vt. – After more than three years of planning, testing, and fundraising, the Rockingham Selectboard recently approved the purchase of the historic 1923 Bellows Falls Train Station, located on Depot Street, at the Island District in Bellows Falls.
“The purchase of the Bellows Falls Train Station is a significant step in the redevelopment of the entire Island District,” Bellows Falls town manager Scott Pickup said in a recent interview. “Considerable planning and resources have already been committed to revitalizing this area, including replacement of the Depot [Street] Bridge, a new handicapped-accessible platform for the train station, brownfield cleanups, and the potential replacement of the Vilas Bridge later this decade.”
Originally built as a two-story structure in 1851, the Bellows Falls Train Station was lost in a fire that destroyed much of the downtown area in 1921. The current one-story brick structure was built and opened between 1921 and 1923. With passenger service slowly declining over the next three decades, all train services to Bellows Falls halted in 1966. Six years later, in 1972, the newly formed Amtrak launched the Montrealer, running from Washington, D.C., to Montreal, and the Bellows Falls station was served by the Montrealer from 1972-1987, then again from 1989-1995, and since 1995, it has been served by the Vermonter.
Currently owned by the Vermont Rail System, a short-line railroad based in Burlington and running through Vermont and eastern New York, the purchase of the Bellows Falls Train Station has been a long and involved process for the town. This included a recent Rockingham board meeting in which the board heard from their environmental consultants, stating that the environmental cleanup the town would be responsible for did not include the cleanup of the environmental soils that surround the station in an eight-acre railyard owned by the State of Vermont.
Pickup has stated that the $285,000 raised for the purchase of the building from owners Vermont Railway Systems came from a direct appropriation from the town, the town’s pandemic economic funds, and a $125,000 downtown transportation fund grant.
“The selectboard has consistently supported the vision of an enhanced area that will be a springboard for future development, and maintaining our historic train station and Amtrak service are a critical step in our forward development,” Pickup added.
The ultimate plan is for the town to restore the historic building and then make it available as a commercial space that a local business or entrepreneur can take over, as well as remaining a train station for passengers to stop twice a day.