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“The Songstress of Springfield” Performs for The Holiday Season Joined by A Local Rising Star

Original performances of “O Holy Night” by Vanessa Ford and “The First Noel” by Kayla Staley were captured at Springfield Union Station in time for the holiday season.

Springfield, MA (December 10, 2021) – Springfield Union Station welcomed back Vanessa Ford, “The Songstress of Springfield,” who is well known for singing at various local area events, to record a new version of “O Holy Night” for the holiday season. She was joined by Springfield Conservatory of the Arts student Kayla Staley who performed “The First Noel.”

The new video recording below will be running on social media starting on Monday, December 13 through Saturday, December 25.

“This certainly is a special holiday season for us all,” stated Nicole Sweeney, Property Manager for Springfield Union Station. “And I can’t think of a better way to start it than with the beautiful voices of Vanessa and Kayla”

Vanessa Ford began singing in the church choir at the age of seven, and she loves every genre of music. She is an aficionado of classical music, jazz, pop, traditional hymns, and contemporary gospel music. She has performed the National Anthem for many local college sporting events, at Springfield Police Academy Graduations, and for a multitude of high-profile local and national events.

Kayla Staley is a student at Springfield’s Conservatory of the Arts and has been singing since she was 12. She enjoys singing at nursing homes, along with other public performances, and hopes to travel to different cities to sing and put smiles on people’s faces.

The video was planned, recorded, and produced by GCAi Digital PR Analyst Mary Cate Mannion who is also a producer at New England Corporate Video.

About: First opened 1926, Springfield Union Station featured gleaming terrazzo floors, a restaurant, lunch counter, barbershop, shoeshine parlor, and small shops to service hundreds of daily passengers who boarded up to 130 trains every 24 hours. The station closed in 1973, which also started a 40-year quest by present-day Congressman Richard E. Neal. Neal eventually secured the funding needed to completely renovate and reopen the historic building. Today, Springfield Union Station is not only a train station but also included a state-of-the-art intermodal transportation center with local and long-distance buses and a new parking garage. Office, retail, and restaurant space has been leased.

Media Contact

GCAi for Springfield Union Station

Darcy Young, 413-736-2245

dyoung@gcaionline.com

 

 

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Union Station kicks off the holiday travel season

WWLP (November 23, 2021) – Wednesday is traditionally the biggest travel day of the year and the travel season will only get busier with Hanukkah and Christmas just around the corner.

With that in mind, a tree lighting ceremony was held Tuesday afternoon at Springfield’s Union Station, a place that will surely be filled with holiday travelers. Congressman Richard Neal, Mayor Domenic Sarno, and the Director of the Springfield Redevelopment Authority were among those who attended.

22News also spoke with Idalia Long who designed and decorated the holiday display, “It’s super special to me because I come from a family that works for Amtrak and I’ve been taking trains since I was a little girl. So being able to honor Union Station is really important to me, especially for the holiday season.”

The tree features a model train that was fabricated by the Amherst Railway Society and travels around the bottom portion of the tree.

Over 48.3 million Americans are expected to hit the road for the holiday this year, one million of those are Massachusetts residents. Union Station offers Amtrak, the Hartford Line that provides round trips to New Haven, Greyhound, Peter Pan, and PVTA bus lines.

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East-west rail proposal gains steam from Biden infrastructure plan

MASSLIVE (November 28, 2021)— Any east-west passenger rail connection from Boston through Worcester to Springfield and beyond should be operated by Amtrak, the state Department of Transportation said in a report that came out soon after Amtrak received $66 billion in the new federal infrastructure law.

The report supported the quasi-public passenger rail service over a potential private operator or the Boston area’s MBTA.

The state didn’t publicize its report, though. Instead, Ben Heckscher, co-founder of the advocacy group Trains in The Valley, said his group sent out out a news release for what he sees as a significant development.

“It looks like they are taking steps forward to see what it would take to actually make this happen,” Heckscher said. “Which is a different tone than we heard maybe a year ago.”

That $1.2 trillion federal infrastructure bill, called the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, includes $2.5 billion in funding for mass transit in the Bay State, along with the opportunity to compete for $16 billion in “major projects” transportation funding.

“The states are going to be flush with revenue now for a decade when it comes to transportation,” said U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield, chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means, which wrote much of the infrastructure bill and its companion Build Back Better bill now before the Senate.

“I’m determined that all of this money is not going to go to the MBTA, and everybody knows this, including the MBTA,” Neal said.

Everybody includes Gov. Charlie Baker, who many observers say is lukewarm at best toward east-west rail. When asked about its prospects, Baker typically cites stumbling blocks and cautiously seeks guarantees of ridership.

But Neal said Baker is open-minded. “The governor and I continue to have these conversations,” he said.

“The Baker-Polito Administration continues to consider options for the East-West rail, including commissioning the East-West Passenger Rail Study which entailed public comment, informational meetings, online engagement and outreach,” MassDOT spokeswoman Judith Riley said this month. “The Administration will continue to review the federal infrastructure bill and its impact on improving transportation options in Massachusetts.”

Neal expects Amtrak president Stephen J. Gardner to visit Springfield soon, and described the east-west rail project as a “unifying theme” for a Massachusetts congressional delegation he leads as the state’s senior member of the U.S. House of Representatives. U.S. Reps. Stephen Lynch, D-South Boston, Seth Moulton, D-Salem, and Jake Auchincloss, D-Newtown, are members of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

There will be other high-profile projects in Massachusetts covered by the infrastructure bill. Neal said he supports using the new law for upgrading the two Cape Cod bridges. He also pointed to the overburdened highway interchange in Sturbridge, where the Massachusetts Turnpike and Interstate 84 meet.

MORE HERE: https://www.masslive.com/news/2020/05/rep-richard-neal-mayor-domenic-sarno-pvta-welcome-36m-in-cares-act-coronavirus-relief-funding.html

 

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