Portland Passenger Rail

I would not be surprised if plans are not already being made for Maine Med to transfer ownership of part or all of the shopping center to build the new train station and integrate it into their future infrastructure. I predict Maine Health's next expansion will be towards St. Johns Street on Congress with a new tower at 10 stories more with an air bridge over the street (or closing Valley street altogether) with an additional air bridge over St. Johns to the transportation facility. But I could easily be wrong.
 
It looks like Fitzpatrick is going to get that renovation for 10,000 fixed seats (with backs) for the USL team for the 2025 season. They just hired a key former exec from Draft Kings to run things (Mainebiz). If the new train station could be ready by the 2026 season (a dream, I know), it would be quite the new scene here with throngs of fans walking from the station to Fitzpatrick. An extra train could be scheduled for game days, perhaps. And I like the idea of a skywalk to Maine Medical Center. It has 9,600 employees and will soon go above this number. A train commute with a covered skywalk from the station to Maine Med would be an attractive option for many.
 
Too bad the state gave up the old line behind hadlock and fitzy, Imagine having a station right next to it... oh well
 
www.pressherald.com

Amtrak planners identify 3 possible sites for new train station in Portland

Moving the station from its current location at Thompson's Point would reduce travel time and improve efficiency of the Downeaster service between Boston and Brunswick.
www.pressherald.com www.pressherald.com

I listened to the meeting. They discussed three potential sites: the long, squiggly parking lot that lies between Congress and Park Ave., behind and across the tracks from Amato's and McDonald's (or, to go old old-Mainer, the old Cumby's across from where Brinks used to be), the Union Station Plaza area, and the area where Ferguson has their showroom near the foot of St. John Street. Those were the same locations identified in the initial MaineDOT report months ago, so what has been going on in the meantime other than compiling pro & con lists, I have no idea.

The analysis as presented definitely leaned in favor of the Ferguson site, partly because they wanted an area they saw as ripe for TOD redevelopment, partly because they also want easy access to the Mountain Branch both to get to the existing maintenance facility by the station, and because they do still see a possibility of using the branch for connectivity to Westbrook (it sounded like Rock Row's plans might still be on the table). They also said the analysis indicates that they need c. 105 parking spaces, and in relation to the Ferguson site several commenters stated that they believe the MMC garage is underutilized and possibly a deal could be made to use that.

One thing to note w/r/t the Ferguson area is that they anticipate that a connection would be made through to the other side of the tracks, accessing Fore River Parkway via the Mercy parking lot. They also anticipate that there would be a shuttle service between whatever new station is built and the PTC. Finally, they also noted that a station on the mainline would actually save 5 minutes between Portland and Boston, just by eliminating an extra mile of slow-speed travel.

The presentation and the meeting recording should be posted on NNEPRA's website soon.
 
I'd hate to see people lose their jobs, but Tyson has been going through a lot of downsizing the past 18 months. I wonder if the Barber Foods plant is in danger of closing? If so, that would be another ideal spot for a station.
 
The block with Amato's and McDonald's could work (not behind). In Boston, when faced with this kind of infrastructure problem, leading architects and citizens with degrees from MIT and Harvard show up to meetings and argue the best way to approach it. In Maine, well...
 
While the Ferguson site has access to the Mountain Branch junction and the MMC parking garage, it is disconcertingly close to that wye junction that leads to the Marine Terminal and would serve as an obstacle for any freight traffic that wants to pass between the Marine Terminal and the Mountain Branch. Perhaps more importantly, the Ferguson site is really lacking in connections to downtown (the hill, the rails, the parkway, and two coastlines really isolate it). The few blocks' diversions won't make much of a difference for car drivers, but if you want to maximize the number of people that get there from walking, biking, or the bus, a location with direct access to Congress St or Park Ave would be huge.

I feel like the ideal site would be the Union Station Plaza. This would still be close enough to the MMC garage to provide access while also making it just inconvenient enough as to nudge people who live close enough to have alternatives to driving to use those instead. To future-proof it for eventual passenger access to the Mountain Branch, you could make future considerations for a new track branching off from the Mountain Branch to run north to the new station site (either a very sharp curve south of the jail, or a more gentle curve north or it). I think the near-term solution would probably be just keeping the platforms at PTC and making the shuttle service so good that the two sites can be considered one mega station.
 
The amount of freight traffic going from the IMT / Yard 8 to the Mountain Branch is exactly 0. Freight moves really wouldn't be impacted by the Ferguson location. Pan Am /CSX has been involved in this process and If there was even a possibility of freight interference they wouldn't have allowed it to even be considered.
 
Cosakita18 said:
The amount of freight traffic going from the IMT / Yard 8 to the Mountain Branch is exactly 0. Freight moves really wouldn't be impacted by the Ferguson location. Pan Am /CSX has been involved in this process and If there was even a possibility of freight interference they wouldn't have allowed it to even be considered.
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I generally keep my mouth shut on this thread because I really know nothing about any of this, but wasn't there talk somewhere in the forum about IMT using rail? But maybe that wasn't a reality because of track/double-stack restrictions?
 
nomc said:
I generally keep my mouth shut on this thread because I really know nothing about any of this, but wasn't there talk somewhere in the forum about IMT using rail? But maybe that wasn't a reality because of track/double-stack restrictions?
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The state built an intermodal loading facility at the IMT, but from what I gather (mainly from another message board, I have no inside knowledge) it's far too small as these things go to be worthwhile, and there's no room to expand because so much land is taken by Portland Yacht Services. Plus, yes, there are double track restrictions: the Cassidy Point Drive bridge over the tracks is too low. MaineDOT wants to remove that, which would at least clear traffic north to Danville Junction, but there are other low clearances south of Portland which would be harder to remove (including some I-495 ramps near Haverhill).
 
I probably should have read through NNEPRA's presentation before chiming in. It looks like, despite my optimistic assumptions, they have no intention of grade-separating congress street, which makes the two northern sites much less viable. If I'm reading it correctly, they seem to be saying that the crossing gates would be down the entire time a train is in the station at both those sites.
It also looks like they still intend to use PLF (which is presumably the layover tracks at Thompson's Point) for maintenance and storage, which elevates Mountain Branch access from 'nice to have for future service" to "critical for daily operations".

In short, the Ferguson site is a clear winner. Maybe someday they'll resurrect Union Station as a proper city gateway, but for now, incremental progress is a hell of a lot better than nothing.
 
Was there ever a full wye between the Mountain Branch and the Portland Line? How did operations work when Union Station was in use?
 
The public hearing video is also on the NNEPRA website.
RandomWalk said:
Was there ever a full wye between the Mountain Branch and the Portland Line? How did operations work when Union Station was in use?
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In ancient times, there was, and NNEPRA did some planning around constructing a new one before they worked out that, due to the processes involved in switching control ends of the train, it would only save 5 minutes. There's an overpass built into Fore River Parkway to accommodate it. Union Station was gone before I was born so I can't speak to that aspect.
 
RandomWalk said:
Was there ever a full wye between the Mountain Branch and the Portland Line? How did operations work when Union Station was in use?
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From Historic Aerials' 1941 topo. . .
1714338252300.png


It was a very sharp wye that tied into the westernmost platforms of Union Station up by the Congress grade crossing. Torn up sometime between 1948 and 1956. The current junction was constructed at that time, replacing an earlier one that tied directly into the Fore River junction further south and missed the station entirely. I believe there was one platform at old Union accessible via a couple cars from the current junction, as that was in use for a handful of years until the end of passenger service on the Mountain in 1958. I presume they made the change due to something related to the end of steam service and the institution of double-ended RDC's on all passenger routes.

1958 topo with new junction. . .
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1956 aerial with new junction and outline of old wye. . .
1714338556300.png
 
Now that I think about it, there would be no reason for freight to ever use that wye; any such traffic on the Mountain would be heading to or coming out of Rigby Yard.
 
IMG_0231.jpeg

Here’s a great aerial showing (from R to L) the construction of both the Veteran’s road bridge (since demolished) and the extant rail bridge, followed by the previous rail bridge. You can clearly see the original southbound wye ROW and the junction towards the center of the old rail bridge.
 
Could they move the layover between the shopping plaza and the jail and wash their hands of the Mountain branch?
 
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