THE RETURN OF THE SUMMER WEEKEND TRAIN.

That used to be a tradition anywhere that lakes and forests beckoned, and once upon a time, such trains were common throughout the northeast.

This summer, Amtrak, despite its inability to field cross-country trains on a dependable basis, will be making an attempt at a weekend service to the Berkshires.

The Berkshire Flyer will depart from New York Penn Station at 3:16 p.m. on Fridays and arrive at Joseph Scelsi Intermodal Transportation Center in Pittsfield at 7:12 p.m. The train will make all the intermediate station stops as the typical Amtrak Empire Service train does on Fridays, including Yonkers, Croton-Harmon, Poughkeepsie, Rhinecliff, Hudson, and Albany-Rensselaer Station in New York. The Sunday return trip, making all the same station stops, will depart Pittsfield at 3:00 p.m. and arrive in New York City at 7:05 p.m. Tickets sales start in May.

Once upon a time, there were passenger trains from Grand Central Terminal as far as Chatham, N.Y. along the Harlem Line, and to Pittsfield by way of Danbury with stops at Lenox and Stockbridge along the New Haven.  Some of those trains included dining and parlor cars.

There will be the usual Amtrak food service on these extended Empire Service trains, and scheduling is with the arts-and-music crowd on mind.  (They're sod out of luck on croissants, at least on the train.)

“CSX will honor our commitment to pilot new passenger service, the Berkshire Flyer, … on our network this summer,” CSX Senior Director of Passenger Operations Andy Daly said. “CSX has a long history of working in partnership on projects that benefit both passenger and freight rail service, and we are looking forward to soon bringing New England stakeholders a safer, more reliable freight rail network with our acquisition of Pan Am.”

“I would like to thank officials in the Connecticut Valley Region for working with our Administration to launch this pilot passenger rail service,” Massachusetts Lt. Governor Karyn Polito said. “The Berkshire Flyer will make it easy for residents to travel to take advantage of opportunities to visit museums, attend concerts, shop, enjoy hiking and bicycling, and enjoy all that Massachusetts has to offer.”

That's the same CSX that closes the Boston and Albany for construction each summer, and Lake Shore Limited passengers might have to change to a connecting train, or use a bus.  We'll see how that works out.

Those trains out of Grand Central?  I think the Pittsfield trains came off north of Danbury as part of the transition to Amtrak.  The Chatham trains, which stayed in New York for the length of their run, lasted for a few more years until the suburban counties around New York City got their act together on Metro-North, and the final schedules made a number of the suburban line stops along the way.  Even with a reverse move at Rensselaer, these trains might get to Pittsfield more quickly, and connections from the Vermont and upstate New York trains might have some use.  If the connections are dependable.