Wachusett's New Summit Chairlift Has A Grand Opening Date
"Well, are ya coming'? Why, to the top of Norm’s Way, of course! This is the Polar Express!"
Alright, that’s not exactly how Tom Hanks’ lines went in the hit animated film released in 2004 that shares the same name as a chairlift at a beloved chairlift in Massachusetts, but the sentiment is still there.
Wachusett Mountain, a ski area in central Massachusetts with a vertical drop of 1,000 feet, spent $20 million over the summer to replace its only chairlift with summit access. On December 19, 2025, that chairlift will spin for the first time.
The Polar Express is not named for the Christmas film, or book by Chris Van Allsburg, but rather, Worcester-based Polar Beverages, who makes the zero-calorie seltzer water you often see on the shelves at your local grocery store and in the soda guns at your favorite après bar.
Wachusett is about a 30-minute drive from Worcester, the second largest city in Massachusetts. It is also the only ski area in the state in which you can access entirely via public transportation. The Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority offers commuter rail service from Boston’s North Station. Take the Fitchburg Line to the Wachusett stop, and then board a modified coach bus equipped with racks for your board and skis.
The new lift will have self-locking restraint bars that automatically close. Wachusett has not yet said how much uphill capacity the change in chairlifts will bring, but it has said that the ride to the summit will be just under five minutes long, according to the Telegram and Gazette.
The mountain signed a deal with Doppelmayr to replace its four-passenger lift at the end of the 2024-2025 season. That lift has been at the central Massachusetts mountain since 1994. The original ribbing-cutting ceremony was scheduled for December 9, 2025. In Massachusetts, a project finishing just 10 days after its projected end-date is actually early. Trust me.
The ribbon cutting will happen at 10 a.m. on December 19. There will be a special grand opening brunch served out of the O’Brien’s window, also at 10 a.m. At noon, riders and skiers will gather to make some s’mores, and from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., there will be live music with the band “Best Not Broken”.
