On track to the future?

When Rutland Mayor David Allaire won his first election to become a city alderman in 1998, one of his goals was to restore passenger rail service between Rutland and Burlington. Nearly a quarter of a century later, Allaire’s dream came to fruition this summer. On July 29, Amtrak extended its Ethan Allen Express, which previously operated between New York City and Rutland, northward to Burlington, adding new stops at Middlebury and Vergennes. Now advocates are hoping the new daily train to Burlington is just the start of what could be a wave of passenger rail expansions and improvements around the region in the next several years -- as funds become available from the bipartisan infrastructure law that President Biden signed last year.

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A brick wall for a canvas

In Glens Falls, murals add to a growing arts scene.
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Election 2022: A roundup of regional races

Massachusetts voters will decide ballot questions about taxing the rich and whether to allow undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses. In New York, a court-imposed redistricting plan has set the stage for an unusual number of close races for Congress and state Senate. And in Vermont, a wave of retirements will mean lots of new faces in Montpelier.
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Discovering the women who drove the civil rights era

It’s late spring or early summer in 1963, and four women are talking in the office of a local civil rights group in Virginia. The events of the day will propel these four friends to face new risks -- and to consider deeply the meaning of freedom and protest and friendship. The award-winning playwright Tori Sampson tells their story as WAM Theatre performs her play, “Cadillac Crew,” in shows Oct. 13-29 at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox.
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