The Joseph Scelsi Intermodal Transportation Center (often referred to as the ITC or the Scelsi ITC) is a transit facility located in downtown Pittsfield, Massachusetts. The $11 million facility is named after Joseph Scelsi, a longtime State Representative who represented Pittsfield. Owned by the Berkshire Regional Transit Authority (BRTA), it is serviced by local BRTA bus services, Amtrak intercity rail service, and Peter Pan intercity bus service. The second floor of the building houses two classrooms used by Berkshire Community College and Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.
Railroad stations have been located in downtown Pittsfield since the Western Railroad opened in 1841. The original station burned in 1854; after its replacement proved inadequate, a union station was constructed in 1866 to serve the Western plus the Housatonic Railroad and the Pittsfield and North Adams Railroad. A second, larger union station replaced it in 1914. The New Haven Railroad and New York Central Railroad moved to smaller depots in 1960 and 1965, and Union Station was demolished in 1968. Rail service to Pittsfield ended in 1971 but returned in 1975 and moved to a new shelter downtown in 1981. The facility ITC opened in 2004 to combine local and intercity bus and intercity rail operations into one location.
Services
Berkshire Regional Transit Authority
The Scelsi ITC serves as a hub and a transfer point for most of the BRTA's routes, though travel to Williamstown sometimes requires a transfer in North Adams, Massachusetts and travel to West Stockbridge and Great Barrington sometimes requires a transfer in Lee. Twelve BRTA routes run from the ITC.
Amtrak
The Boston section of Amtrak's Lake Shore Limited serves Pittsfield with one train in each direction daily. Both trains are scheduled to arrive mid-afternoon. The Berkshire Flyer provides summer weekend service to New York Penn Station via the Empire Corridor. The Flyer arrives on Friday evenings and departs on Sunday afternoons. The Amtrak platform, which is located below the main level of the building, is accessible using a stairway or an elevator. There is a single low-level platform facing one of the line's two tracks. A wheelchair lift is available for use if needed, making the station accessible.
Intercity bus
Peter Pan Bus Lines serves Pittsfield with two daily round trips on its Albany-Springfield-Providence route. Peter Pan's Bonanza Bus division serves Pittsfield with two daily round trips on its New York-Danbury-Williamstown route.
History
Early stations
The Western Railroad opened from the New York – Massachusetts state line to Pittsfield, Massachusetts on July 4, 1841; the first train from the state line to Springfield ran on October 4, 1841. A wooden station had been built the previous year at West Street in Pittsfield. Its design, a "wooden imitation of Egyptian architecture" with Greek columns in antis, was an example of the architecture of railroads combining familiar forms with the unfamiliar technology, a juxtaposition common in Europe. Passengers boarded from a dank lower level, and the station was vastly unpopular.
The Pittsfield and North Adams Railroad opened to the north on October 6, 1846; it was owned and operated by the Western and shared its depot. The Stockbridge and Pittsfield Railroad opened to the south in January 1850 and was immediately merged into the Housatonic Railroad; it used a depot near West Street around away from the Western Railroad station. With the completion of the Housatonic, passengers could travel in four directions from Pittsfield: west to Albany, north to North Adams, east to Springfield and Boston, and south to Bridgeport and New York City.
Like many wooden stations of the era, the 1840 depot did not last long; it burned in half an hour at noon on November 5, 1854. An 1876 history of the city reported that:
The Western soon replaced it with a more conventional one-story wooden station slightly to the west. Although well-liked, it proved too small within a decade.