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November 17, 2004
  Articles on this page: • A Brief History of Public Transportation in Berkshire County A Brief History of Public Transportation in Berkshire County A hundred years ago public transit in the Berkshire region was light years ahead of where it is today. That was because "private" transportation was largely limited to either walking or acquiring the use of a horse to ride or to pull a cart or carriage. Before the advent of the automobile, which was just making its presence felt in the County in the early years of the 20th century, it was far more common for people to travel in a group than alone.
Railroads made their debut in this area in the mid-19th century, and immediately changed the Berkshire economy from an agricultural base to a manufacturing base. In Williamstown, where trains first arrived in 1859, farming employed 277 people according to the 1865 census, while the lone cotton mill in town employed a total of 57 workers. By 1885 only 180 people are listed as farmers as compared to 272 factory workers and laborers. That census also shows a number of new types of employment recorded which do not occur in earlier statistics, including: station agent, flagman, baggageman, expressman, telegraph operator, engineer and plumber. The influence of the railroads could not be more evident. Trolley service started in Pittsfield when horse cars began running in 1886. The advent of this kind of public transportation enabled people to live greater distances from where they worked, and encouraged regular social interaction, as well as commercial transactions, between communities. The Berkshire Street Railway was not officially formed until 1901 from lines previously owned and operated by the Hoosac Valley Street Railway, Pittsfield Street Railway, Pittsfield Electric Street Railway, Hoosick Railway, Bennington Electric Railroad, Bennington & Hoosick Valley Railway, Bennington & North Adams Street Railway, Hoosick Falls Railroad and Vermont Company. At its zenith in 1917 the Berkshire Street Railway was the only trolley system in America to run trains in four states, with a line reaching from Canaan, Connecticut in the south to Bennington, Vermont, and Hoosick Falls, New York, in the north. There were 134 route miles in Massachusetts, 26.5 miles in Vermont and New York state, and a mere 1.5 miles in Connecticut.
From railroad hubs such as Canaan, Pittsfield, and Bennington, it was possible to get off the trolley and transfer to a train bound for just about anywhere on the North American continent. For two years the Berkshire's ill-fated Huckleberry line proved a connection with the Springfield Street Railway and the vast system of trolley lines in the Connecticut River Valley and in central and eastern Massachusetts. But no sooner had the Berkshire Street Railway reached its full powers than it began its ultimate decline. Privately owned automobiles were becoming increasingly more prevalent and more and more roads in the county were being paved. The last electric trolleys ran over the line between Pittsfield and Dalton in November of 1932, after which motorized buses such as we are familiar with today started running the routes. By the 1950's the Berkshire Street Railway was in serious decline. In 1959 buses operated by Yellow Coach Lines started picking up their routes, and in 1963 the Berkshire declared bankruptcy. Yellow Coach followed suit in 1969, and in 1970 Dufour Brothers of Prospect, Connecticut, took over 16 of their routes with 20 buses.
After the Massachusetts legislature passed an act enabling the creation of regional transit operations, the Berkshire Regional Transit Authority was formed in June of 1974, contracting with Dufour to continue providing buses and maintenance services for the routes. Bringing the public transit full circle, the BRTA named Louis J. Perachi, Jr., a former bus driver for the Berkshire Street Railway and Yellow Coach Lines, as their first full-time Administrator in 1976.
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