Thompson's Point, Portland

PlantArch said:
When I went through there the other day I noticed the plates of the cars at the museum came from far and wide. Many NY, MA, VT, PA plates.
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Exactly. They are coming. They and their money and they want a new house, or not the typical crummy Maine housing stock. Kaplan Thompson is already all over this. 2-5 million to build per home. Check out their website.
 
New updated renderings for tuesday's meeting.
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From considering this large residential development and the hotel, the train station's next location half-a-mile away becomes substantially less of a justification. If anything, new or different, I would build the parking garage and a new passenger terminal with dynamic food and drink offerings (to make up for the spend). It gives a reason for passengers to show up early. The new location will become a dead zone most of the time (and dangerous at night), or one that passengers will get in and out of fast (from only cars). I used to hate Penn Station in Manhattan. But across the street now, the new Moynihan building has an incredible food and drink setup and scene. Next time I use it, I'm coming early for the selection of drafts in that cozy big space. And the new South Station build? Looks cool though I haven't seen it lately. But the old part with the food and drink offerings still sucks. Why can't they get it right?

I'll be back!

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Oh, and if anyone has the contact information for the group that has been tasked with the new train station approval, please forward it to me. I will point out all of the stupidity here and have an attorney friend send a warning letter with relevant crime statistics that they will be held responsible after the first crime victim there, most likely a young female late at night waiting for a rideshare that never comes. The West End, and that's a nice area, nearby has seen substantial muggings over the last few years. Sorry, but one sleepy indifferent security guard won't cut it. And that's a cost to factor in too.
 
TC_zoid said:
Oh, and if anyone has the contact information for the group that has been tasked with the new train station approval, please forward it to me. I will point out all of the stupidity here and have an attorney friend send a warning letter with relevant crime statistics that they will be held responsible after the first crime victim there, most likely a young female late at night waiting for a rideshare that never comes. The West End, and that's a nice area, nearby has seen substantial muggings over the last few years. Sorry, but one sleepy indifferent security guard won't cut it. And that's a cost to factor in too.
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MaineDOT is leading the project. NNEPRA is of course a stakeholder, and eventually the Portland Planning Board will have a say. But DOT is running the show (probably since they have more money than NNEPRA does).
 
To shave just 5 min, let's build a multi-million-dollar platform. Its Patricia Quinn... I get it that the Downeaster does not want to rent the space to Concord Coach no more and it wants its own facility. I don't want to be dropped off on St John Street! It's like taking Greyhound on Marginal Way. I know the long-term plan is offer commuter service between Wells and Portland and to have a station on the mainline is the best option than stopping and backing up off the mtn division line. Hindsight 20/20 that we should have never torn down union station. Its gone!!!
 
markhb said:
MaineDOT is leading the project. NNEPRA is of course a stakeholder, and eventually the Portland Planning Board will have a say. But DOT is running the show (probably since they have more money than NNEPRA does).
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MaineDOT.....that explains everything. Totally unrelated but always stuck in my craw......why can't the State of Maine get bridge seams right? I've never seen so many rough transitions from road to bridge to road as they have in this state.🙄
 
NNEPRA wanted a station on the mainline and on the peninsula. That's a very short stretch, and the sites around Congress have two big drawbacks: you're dealing with Maine Health, who owns them, and they're close enough to the crossing that the detectors would fire and drop the gates the whole time the train is sitting at the platform. Personally, I would've dropped the on-peninsula requirement given that most Downeaster passengers come from outside Portland, and looked at Deering Junction (Morrill 's Corner), but no one in charge wanted to go there
 
markhb said:
NNEPRA wanted a station on the mainline and on the peninsula. That's a very short stretch, and the sites around Congress have two big drawbacks: you're dealing with Maine Health, who owns them, and they're close enough to the crossing that the detectors would fire and drop the gates the whole time the train is sitting at the platform. Personally, I would've dropped the on-peninsula requirement given that most Downeaster passengers come from outside Portland, and looked at Deering Junction (Morrill 's Corner), but no one in charge wanted to go there
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Ideally they would elevate the rail line over Congress Street so that there would be no conflict; this would allow the station to be sited more closely to that intersection, approximately where the original station was. The tracks are already elevated just a block north as they pass over Park Street. Hopefully NNEPRA will eventually be run by a more strategic, active and effective board in a forseeable future.
 
I would loathe the Downeaster moved to this new or original location. Currently, it's not really running right due to, yes, even more track work. Once, we sat on the tracks for 1.5 hours hours outside of Wells. Options? Concord Coach? Thank God. There were zero trains all day from North Station to Portland on Saturday, so I took Concord Coach to Portland from South Station and it was 93 minutes from departure to arrival. Sweet!
 
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GIL said:
Ideally they would elevate the rail line over Congress Street so that there would be no conflict; this would allow the station to be sited more closely to that intersection, approximately where the original station was. The tracks are already elevated just a block north as they pass over Park Street. Hopefully NNEPRA will eventually be run by a more strategic, active and effective board in a forseeable future.
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It's not that the tracks are specifically elevated above Park Avenue (although there is, essentially, a very long, slow, continuous uphill grade from Rigby Yard to somewhere in Falmouth), it's more that Park Avenue is significantly lower than Congress St. Not to mention, that "elevation" is low clearance, and mitigating that westbound clearance restriction is presumably one of the intended benefits of the Libbytown rotary / bidirectional Congress St. project.

And digging out Congress to go under the tracks, and moving all the water and sewer infrastructure with it? I can't see anyone supporting that expense.
 
Picture going from Portland to Boston and taking a car or bus to Saco to board the train, then getting off in Haverhill, then having to figure out how to get there (by car or bus). This is what California is proposing. I read that they have spent $7 billion so far. But no matter what happens with the Downeaster, we won't look this stupid.

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What’s going on with the afternoon cancellations with Amtrak? Was going to take the Amtrak to a Sox game in a few weeks but the afternoon trains were cancelled.
 
NR2Portland said:
What’s going on with the afternoon cancellations with Amtrak? Was going to take the Amtrak to a Sox game in a few weeks but the afternoon trains were cancelled.
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The annual tie replacement project; I believe they replace about a third of the ties every year.
 
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