Claremont
“It’s promotion and marketing,” Mayor Charlene Lovett said about the increase.
As a councilor in 2014, Lovett pushed for the creation of a committee to look at ways to improve the look of the station as well as advertise it more in hopes of seeing more riders.
At the time, there was concern that Claremont would not be a stop on the planned high speed rail service, but last September, the Northern New England Intercity Rail Initiative decided to keep Claremont on the schedule.
Among the efforts by the committee were updated and more detailed information about Claremont on Amtrak’s web site, the addition of signs around the city giving directions to the station and increased promotion on the radio and other mediums with both regional and national reach.
“I was speaking about it on the radio (recently) and was told that someone listening called city hall asking where to buy tickets,” Lovett said.
Last October, a shelter that was paid for with donations and built by volunteers was dedicated.
For a time, there was public bus service at the station but that has been stopped for the time being, Lovett said.
The Amtrak Vermonter stops in Claremont twice a day: once heading north to St. Albans, Vt., from its origination in Washington, D.C., and again heading south between the same two points.
Lovett said committee members have gone down to the station on occasion to ask riders where they are arriving from and they include Pennsylvania, Baltimore, Washington and New York City, Lovett said.
“We also have a lot more students using it now,” she said.
Committee member and state Rep. Ray Gagnon, D-Claremont, said Claremont could be better served and soldify its place as a stop on the line if the Legislature dropped its resistance to funding passenger rail service. An increase in ridership would help get its attention.
“Our thinking is that if we can increase ridership it will build interest in the powers-that-be,” Gagnon said.
Lovett and Gagnon said Maine, which helps funds rail service, does not gripe much about New Hampshire’s refusal to contribute money because the Amtrak Downeaster stops in the Granite state at Exeter, Durham and Dover have some of the highest ridership on the line.
That translates into money flowing back to Maine, and Vermont receives revenue based on ridership numbers in Claremont.
Claremont right now is among the bottom three stops in terms of ridership on the Vermonter, according to Gagnon.
“We would like to be in the middle. It would be a much better position and Claremont would be seen as pulling its weight, and it would make Claremont Junction more attractive to the entire line.”
Lovett would like to see an annual ridership of 4,000 come through Claremont, which would be nearly double the present ridership.
On Saturday, the city will further promote train travel when Amtrak’s Exhibit Train makes a stop from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the siding behind Claremont Cycle Depot.
Lovett described the five-car train as a converted timeline of Amtrak and as visitors move through the cars they will see the past, present and proposed future for nation’s primary rail service provider. Admission is free and the event will include food, entertainment, model trains and a historical display on train travel, including a velocipede, a generic term for the forerunner of the modern bicycle.
Lovett said the contraption was used before electricity when a rail worker would mount it on the tracks and ride along checking the kerosene lamps to be sure they remained lit..
Claremont’s first rail line was built in the late 1840s on the tracks that pass through the junction and the rail line from Concord opened in the 1870s.
Lovett also said the carry-on bike pilot program on the Vermonter, which started May 1st, has had 111 reservations made between St. Albans and D.C. with the majority (80) occurring between Springfield and St. Albans.
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com
