The train next time/To walk or to ride?

This overview from Depot Hill in Holyoke, photographed in 2016, is of the Amtrak platform built in 2015.

January 2015, the day a worker first  marked construction plans in the snow. Depot Hill is in the background.

In 2014, the view from Depot Hill could benefit from a train depot in the foreground.

Ten years ago, there was an old walkway from Bowers Street on Depot Hill (left off camera) to the intersection of Main Street and Dwight Street. If the walkway existed today, it would be next to the new Amtrak train platform. In my mind that generates the question,  to walk or to ride?

According to my picture from winter 2015, the walkway is closed. Based on what the picture sees, the walkway is more than closed, it has disappeared. Setting time aside, Pulp City is entering the realm of “magical realism”.

 I photographed standing in the walkway in 2006, near the “walkway closed” sign pictured above.

In 2014, I photographed the Historic Register worthy train station located several hundred yards north of the new Amtrak cement platform. Renovating this station would have cost the big bucks. That’s not happening soon, considering there is only one train daily. For a lot less money, Holyoke could purchase a few hundred tons of cement and make another elevated walkway. It could also be a community skateboard track. Now that’s something that enhances the question, to walk or to ride?.

While I was working on this post I came across this wonderful picture by Dorothea Lange from 1937. Over 80 years ago, to walk or to ride was the question. Now, the answer is still based on the same reality. If you want the answer, simply check the price of an Amtrak ticket.