Pittsfield

Get in

By plane

• Albany International Airport (ALB), Albany, New York. (About 45 mi away)
• Bradley International Airport (BDL), Windsor Locks, Connecticut. (About 75 mi away)

By car

Pittsfield is on Routes 20 and 7, accessible via Interstate 90 (Massachusetts Turnpike) Exit 2.

By train

• Route stopping at Pittsfield:

• Lake Shore Limited operating daily between Chicago and Boston or New York City. It makes stops at most stations along the route, though it does not stop at some of the smallest stations. Trains consist of train cars from both branches between Chicago and Albany (Rensselaer). The trains split into separate branches between Albany (Rensselaer) and both Boston and New York City. Stops between Chicago and Albany (Rensselaer) include South Bend, Elkhart, Waterloo, Bryan, Toledo, Sandusky, Elyria, Cleveland, Erie, Buffalo (Depew), Rochester, Syracuse, Utica, and Schenectady. Stops between Albany (Rensselaer) and Boston include Pittsfield, Springfield, Worcester, Framingham.

By bus

Pittsfield is served by several intercity bus lines offering regular service to Boston, New York, Albany, Hartford and points in between.

Get around

• The Pittsfield Visitors Center, 111 South Street (Route 7) in the lobby of the newly renovated Colonial Theatre downtown, +1 413 443-9186, x232 or x324.
• The Joseph Scelsi Intermodal Transportation Center, 1 Columbus Avenue, the hub for the Berkshire Regional Transit Authority. The BRTA offers service stretching from North Adams above Pittsfield, down to Great Barrington below it. Service runs roughly from 6AM to 7PM, with trips usually running once an hour, though it can vary by route. There is no service on Sundays. Fares are $1.25 per city traveled, with half-fare for seniors, and discounted to $1.05 if you buy a 20-fare passcard. The buses are generally clean and quiet, and only heavily occupied during rush hour times.
• Rainbow Taxi can be reached at +1 413 499-4300.
• Arrow Taxi can be reached at +1 413 499-8604

You will need to call a taxi in order to be picked up, instead of flagging one. Be warned that during inclement weather or rush hour the wait for a taxi to arrive can easily be a half-hour or longer.

• Walking is also an option, as the city is fairly small and safe. Many parts of the city are reachable with an hour or less of walking, especially if you're staying at the Crowne Plaza.

Stay safe

Pittsfield is for the most part a sleepy city with a low crime rate, and usually safe to walk through even after dark, but you may want to exercise some caution while on the side of the city west of North Street late at night, or when in the neighborhoods along and off of Linden, Lincoln, and Tyler St. and Dewey and Madison Av.

Also of concern is the PCB contamination caused by General Electric's toxic waste dumping during the middle decades of the 1900s. While much of it has since been cleaned up, there are still a few areas that are not safe for human activity. One main one is the Housatonic River, which is still dirty and contaminated; do not fish, swim, wade, etc. in the river waters or any ponds or flood plains that spring from it. The other main one is Silver Lake. While it looks cleaner and is worth driving past because the area is scenic and has many geese and ducks, it too is not safe for swimming, wading, picnicking, etc. There are a few other areas still contaminated as well, mainly around the river; basically, if you see a sign saying the area is contaminated or has PCBs, heed it. Onota and Pontoosuc offer plenty of safe water to frolic in, and there's no shortage of pretty places to walk in Pittsfield, so you won't be missing much.

Go next

The Pioneer Valley and Boston are both close by to the east, roughly an hour and two-hour drive, respectively. To the west, Albany is reachable with around an hour's drive.