Unless something has changed, the "sold-out" status of the Berkshire Flyer is a bit of a lie.
Wht I've been seeing (and jives with numbers I've seen elsewhere) is that the NYP-ALB segment is sold out, which on a late afternoon Friday makes a lot of sense.
But the ALB-PIT segment is far from sold out. For example, right now I see it's only 20% full for this weekend. (vs 90% for the NYP-ALB segment)
That said, even if that number is true, that number isn't terrible a I believe they're running either 4 or 5 coaches plus the empty cafe car. Assuming it's 4, that's nearly a full car and over 50 passengers. I suspect they're somehow not counting the entire train though.
That said, recently the Empire State Passenger Assoc had a post on FB giving a suggestion for Sunday round trips, to ride out in the morning spend a few hours and then back on the LSL.
Honestly, at $30/trip (including bike charge), I've been giving it some thought to biking to Pittsfield and taking the train back to get in a decent ride and some scenery.
One smart thing they did by the 2nd or 3rd week was open the dead-head ride back to paying passengers.
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