Portland Passenger Rail

Tom Nevers said:
A few fairly obvious observations:
1) Having to make a connection with less than an hour between scheduled arrival at North Station and scheduled departure at South Station is a recipe for anxiety. Reliably arriving on time is huge!
2) Walking to or from the PTC after dark is unpleasant.
3) Saco has the best train station in Maine.
4) The Downeaster needs to run on Sundays.
5) Be wary of restaurants that say they can fill a to go soup order in 6 minutes or less.
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So far as transferring in Boston goes, when I travelled on the Lake Shore, the Portland station attendant literally advised me to use Concord Coach to get to Boston rather than try to make the connection from the Downeaster. If you're traveling light, taking the Orange Line to Back Bay and boarding there is typically the best way to go rather than going to BOS.
 
NNEPRA Board meeting minutes from March note that we can expect a fifth roundtrip on the Downeaster to be added by this summer. This was also mentioned by Ms. Quinn during the recent TRNE annual meeting. I believe she said the additional roundtrip would be added in May. I'm really looking forward to this and eventually a 6th, 7th and 8th...

More good news is that NNEPRA supports moving the PTC to the main line. Hopefully, with them and MDOT backing the proposal, this will actually happen. Would probably also help to have a champion in local government. Anyone have a sense of how elected officials in Portland are feeling about this?

Finally, if you haven't checked out Transit Tomorrow, recently released by GPCOG, it's worth skimming. I appreciate the recognition that increased frequency, expanded operating hours, and better land use policy are all essential to making transit more convenient. Also, the rapid transit corridors they ID in Goal 3 are encouraging, even if I disagree with Biddeford-Saco-Portland being a lower priority than Gorham-Westbrook-Portland.

Edit- forgot we’d already discussed the additional roundtrip and NNEPRA’s support of moving the train station in the Crazy Transit Pitches thread. I guess I’ll chalk that up to a crazy busy February and March.
 
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I'd anticipate that the 5th round trip will coincide with the annual opening of the OOB stop.

The MaineDOT study regarding the Portland station is here. The recommendation was to shore up the PTC and study the Union Station option further (note that only rail would move to Union Station; Concord Coach owns the PTC and is happy where they are). There's mention in there as to whether adverse taking at Union Station might be involved (i.e., forcibly using eminent domain when the landowner is unwilling to sell); that tends to lead to drawn-out lawsuits that go on past the next election.
 
My first thought when looking at a lot of these site plans is: Why do all of these proposals feature tiny station buildings? A lot of the proposed terminals look to be even smaller than the existing PTC, which is already a cramped and unpleasant facility. I can't imagine it would be anything more than a waiting room with some restrooms. It seems fairly shortsighted to build a terminal that isn't capable of comfortably handling any new future service and an increase in passenger volume. Personally, I feel like Portland deserves a signature rail terminal with commercial and retail amenities that makes it an attractive place to wait for a train, not just a waiting room with a Pepsi vending machine.
 
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Cosakita18 said:
My first thought when looking at a lot of these site plans is: Why do all of these proposals feature tiny station buildings? A lot of the proposed terminals look to be even smaller than the existing PTC, which is already a cramped and unpleasant facility. I can't imagine it would be anything more than a waiting room with some restrooms. It seems fairly shortsighted to build a terminal that isn't capable of comfortably handling any new future service and an increase in passenger volume. Personally, I feel like Portland deserves a signature rail terminal with commercial and retail amenities that makes it an attractive place to wait for a train, not just a waiting room with a Pepsi vending machine.
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100% agree. City Gov. can't think out of a box. Why not find some private industry and do a deal? They get to give the station an advertising theme. But make it a cool one. Not insurance!
 
Article in the Press Herald yesterday about approval of an $800k Gorham-Westbrook-Portland rapid transit study. This is the highest priority corridor ID’ed in the Transit Tomorrow study linked to in post 62 above so it’s great to see movement on this already.

www.pressherald.com

Regional planners approve Portland-Gorham rapid transit study

The study, to be paid for with $800,000 of federal pandemic relief funds, is a step toward potentially 'transformative' regional public transportation, they said.
www.pressherald.com www.pressherald.com
 
Tom Nevers said:
Article in the Press Herald yesterday about approval of an $800k Gorham-Westbrook-Portland rapid transit study. This is the highest priority corridor ID’ed in the Transit Tomorrow study linked to in post 62 above so it’s great to see movement on this already.

www.pressherald.com

Regional planners approve Portland-Gorham rapid transit study

The study, to be paid for with $800,000 of federal pandemic relief funds, is a step toward potentially 'transformative' regional public transportation, they said.
www.pressherald.com www.pressherald.com
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Not even sure why they're still calling this a "bus or rail" study when the rail line goes nowhere near Gorham to begin with. This is pretty clearly going to be an express bus corridor on ME 25, and the study is funded like it's for bus transit not rail transit to boot. Don't get me wrong...that's plenty worthy enough. Just puzzled that they still aren't being totally honest with themselves about what it is.
 
Article about the possibility of restoring service between Brunswick and Rockland. The frequency is weak and the service would be limited to about half of the year. Even so, I’d love to see expanded access to the coast via rail. Also, it would be great to see this lead to an extension of the Downeaster to Bath. That, in addition to some schedule changes, could draw additional commuters that don’t have the option of working remotely.

www.google.com

Rail authority hears proposal for Brunswick-to-Rockland passenger line

A self-propelled rail car would carry passengers between Rockland and Brunswick. The trips would be timed to connect with Downeaster trains in Brunswick.
www.google.com www.google.com
 
Tom Nevers said:
Article about the possibility of restoring service between Brunswick and Rockland. The frequency is weak and the service would be limited to about half of the year. Even so, I’d love to see expanded access to the coast via rail. Also, it would be great to see this lead to an extension of the Downeaster to Bath. That, in addition to some schedule changes, could draw additional commuters that don’t have the option of working remotely.

www.google.com

Rail authority hears proposal for Brunswick-to-Rockland passenger line

A self-propelled rail car would carry passengers between Rockland and Brunswick. The trips would be timed to connect with Downeaster trains in Brunswick.
www.google.com www.google.com
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Interesting that they plan on using DMU’s “used with great success between Dallas and Fort Worth”. Does that mean they will be using a train like this between Brunswick and Rockland?
1643250336331.jpeg
 
Yep...these are antique Budds. Finger Lakes Railway is an excursion service that owns a couple RDC's in-house. It'll be importing one of their own, then likely fishing for some of the Vermont ones as extras. There's no spare 'modern' DMU's available anywhere on the aftermarket.
 
I'd love to see the train go all the way to Belfast. Maybe even Bangor
 
I would think 2 or 3 observation cars would be a good way to attract tourists. Not everyone drives, or today that is (especially youth). I'd like to see a double decker observation car for the Downeaster between Boston and Portland. (They did have one for a few weeks a few years ago, or at the end of the summer.) I take that train a lot, and it's a bit claustrophobic inside with its narrow height windows, albeit, still comfy. It could be a draw in itself. And "beef up" the food car with a new design and more options, and that's another lure. People want an experience, except for commuters, and there will be relatively few between Portland and Rockland. Everyone loves a nice train, redolent of times past.
 
TC_zoid said:
I would think 2 or 3 observation cars would be a good way to attract tourists. Not everyone drives, or today that is (especially youth). I'd like to see a double decker observation car for the Downeaster between Boston and Portland. (They did have one for a few weeks a few years ago, or at the end of the summer.) I take that train a lot, and it's a bit claustrophobic inside with its narrow height windows, albeit, still comfy. It could be a draw in itself. And "beef up" the food car with a new design and more options, and that's another lure. People want an experience, except for commuters, and there will be relatively few between Portland and Rockland. Everyone loves a nice train, redolent of times past.
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Unfortunately, the observation car, known as the Great Dome, was taken down a low-clearance line it should not have been on and got wrecked (essentially, it got Storrowed). Since it was very much a nice-to-have leftover from the pre-Amtrak era, to my knowledge there are no plans to fix it. More options in the Downeaster cafe would be the province of the operator; maybe reach out to them.

One advantage the RDC will have over the heritage equipment the Maine Eastern was running is accessibility; it was severely limited before due to the age of the equipment. I'm trying to see if I have the old MERR schedule from their maximum service level just before they lost the contract; if I do have them I will post here.

F-Line to Dudley said:
Yep...these are antique Budds. Finger Lakes Railway is an excursion service that owns a couple RDC's in-house. It'll be importing one of their own, then likely fishing for some of the Vermont ones as extras. There's no spare 'modern' DMU's available anywhere on the aftermarket.
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Glad to see you're around! Your prolonged absence was concerning.
 
The fact that they want to run services on a fixed schedule implies that it would be more of a commuter / shuttle type service.

I think that if done right this service could appeal to mid-Coast residents who know better than to try to fight Route 1 on Certain days of the week in summer / fall. This service would definitely be time competitive with driving when traffic on Route 1 is particularly bad
 
Cosakita18 said:
I think that if done right this service could appeal to mid-Coast residents who know better than to try to fight Route 1 on Certain days of the week in summer / fall. This service would definitely be time competitive with driving when traffic on Route 1 is particularly bad
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Also appealing to parents with young children into trains. We did the Maine Eastern thing several years ago when our oldest child was 3 and still very much into trains. We met my parents in Rockland for lunch (they lived up near Ellsworth at the time), and it was an all-around fun day.
 
markhb said:
One advantage the RDC will have over the heritage equipment the Maine Eastern was running is accessibility; it was severely limited before due to the age of the equipment. I'm trying to see if I have the old MERR schedule from their maximum service level just before they lost the contract; if I do have them I will post here.
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Depends on whose RDC's. If Finger Lakes' RDC's are in antique condition, they are not going to be accessible inside (no wheelchair berths, insufficient aisle width, inaccessible doors, etc.). Indeed, a majority of the RDC's floating around on the aftermarket are not accessible because their interiors are still unmodified from an earlier accessibility era. You'd have to find one that's been interior-retrofitted in the post-ADA era...not just restored...and that cuts it down to a subset of the self-operable Budds still floating around.

It's an avenue for the All-Earth RDC's parked in Vermont, because those ex-Dallas ones were used on a commuter rail system fresh-launched in the ADA era and were rebuilt with fully-accessible interiors and wheelchair lifts. It'd also be an avenue for some of the ex- VIA Rail ones floating around. But there are limitations writ-large with heritage equipment. You can't exactly use literal rail museum equipment on publicly-funded transit. Since Finger Lakes operates a museum excursion service (in addition to providing freight) in New York they're going to have to show where their sourced equipment is accessible before it can run here.
 
BosMaineiac said:
Interesting that they plan on using DMU’s “used with great success between Dallas and Fort Worth”. Does that mean they will be using a train like this between Brunswick and Rockland?
View attachment 20817
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That's TexRail, but they are probably talking about Trinity Railway Express, which, as the article mentioned, transitioned to locomotive hauled trains (back in 2011). Prior to that they used Budd's.

TRE_Budd_Rail_diesel_car.jpg
 
HenryAlan said:
That's TexRail, but they are probably talking about Trinity Railway Express, which, as the article mentioned, transitioned to locomotive hauled trains (back in 2011). Prior to that they used Budd's.

TRE_Budd_Rail_diesel_car.jpg
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Most likely. That’s what I figured would be used, my comment was tongue-in-cheek as I would certainly not expect brand new DMU’s to ply the old Midcoast branch anytime soon :LOL:
 
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