Downeaster Ridership Up 28%

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massac ... 8_percent/

Highlights: Ridership for FY is up 28% (an average of about 947 passengers per day). Cited factors were an additional frequency and gas prices.

And it looks like funding beyond FY'09 has been taken care of.

Great news all around... both in the ridership and the funding secured for the future. It'd be a shame to see the train get the axe for lack of funding. Pan-Am (Guilford) really shocked the world with this train. Lets hope its success continues, and it can get north of Portland in the near future - which btw, should be on the "Lower Road" of Pan-Am vs spending millions more (in addition to track rehab) to rebuild the causeway/burned bridge.

Well after lurking on this forum for five years I guess it's time to post....

I live up here in Maine, in Winthrop, and am very happy to see what has happened with the Downeaster. Some of the articles that are out there right now re: the current Downeaster stats mention that NNERPA is negotiating with Pan Am for a sixth roundtrip. This would mark a historic return to post-war levels of service that were operated jointly by MEC and B&M. The very thought this is even being considred I think is utterly shocking.

gokeefe

Well, isn't there a statistic that this is the first time in 50 years this many people are using Mass Transit? That would be 1958. It is shocking thought. What goes around comes around I guess!

jscola30:

Indeed...but what is more interesting about these numbers is that they demonstrate the formation of a critical mass for permanent high frequency corridor service between Portland and Boston and perhaps between Brunswick-Portland-Boston. I think it has been only in this past year that the Downeaster has really moved from a 'unique trial program' of some kind to a fixture of Maine's transportation infrastructure.

I really should emphasize that there are population centers in the state right now that have yet to be fully accessed such as Lewiston, Augusta, Brunswick, Bath, Freeport, and the Falmouth/Yarmouth area even though they have some proximity to Portland. Connection in Brunswick will immediately also bring in the Rockland division market. I was on the Maine Eastern excursion up the Lower Road to Augusta which was a lot of fun but I had also not yet been on the Rockland Branch.

I haven't seen mention of this made in the past but the Rockland Branch is in REALLY good shape, Class III wise. The road bed has substantial depth of ballast, brush is trimmed back about 20 ft. on either side of the ROW and virtually every single crossing signal has been fully rehabbed, replaced or is just flat out brand new. Not to mention the Carlton Bridge has been renovated, with new signals for the drawspan and of course the new Bath Station, and the renovated Rockland station. That line is READY for service to Brunswick and will be able to deliver passenger/commuter volume feeding into the Downeaster service on D-Day in Brunswick.

With a little more time I think you will see several smaller towns along the line construct passenger stations including Wiscasset and maybe Newcastle.

I strongly believe this part of the story is essentially untold right now and needs to get out.

gokeefe

shadyjay wrote:Great news all around... both in the ridership and the funding secured for the future. It'd be a shame to see the train get the axe for lack of funding. Pan-Am (Guilford) really shocked the world with this train. Lets hope its success continues, and it can get north of Portland in the near future - which btw, should be on the "Lower Road" of Pan-Am vs spending millions more (in addition to track rehab) to rebuild the causeway/burned bridge.

It'd be much more accurate to say that the New England passenger rail advocates, Amtrak and the state of Maine shocked the world with this train.

Among those shocked was Guilford/Pan Am, who fought it, fought raising the speed limit even after it had been approved. Then Guilford/Pan Am finally shocked Amtrak when they realized it was a pretty successful train that might well subsidize track repair, and admitted how wrong they had been. It is nice to see a corporation pay enough attention to notice they were wrong and admit it.

If Pan Am's change of mind is genuine and thorough-going, perhaps it makes sense to rely on them for the northern trackage, but the early histor of the Downeaster does make one pause.

I sat in the heat at Woburn/Anderson last Friday night waiting for the 6:38 after finding that the 5:18 was sold out. I waited with a dozen other late walk-ups who weren't expecting the 5:18 to be booked solid. The 6:38 ended up being a 7:30 due to delays caused by the heat, yet no one complained (probably because it cooled off some and there was a stiff breeze). The common refrain was "well, I could be stuck in traffic on 95, so I'd be delayed either way." It then turned out that the 6:38 was practically sold out, with nary a seat available. Along with another rider going to Exeter, I sat on the floor in the handicapped area rather than search for a seat. We laughed that we had the most leg room on the train.

On my return out of Dover yesterday morning the cars were pretty well full after Exeter. There were a number of tourists from outside of New England who were staying in NH and Maine and decided to use the train to travel to Boston for the day. On a previous trip north I had talked with a couple that was headed to Friendship for vacation and they were meeting family in Portland. They were coming from the Jersey burbs and had taken the Acela north. When I mentioned that there was talk of expanding service to Brunswick and that the Maine Eastern had service from Brunswick east, they stated that were the option available they would take the train as far as they could to limit the family having to drive to pick them up.

Obviously there is a lot of potential traffic to be tapped into, be it tourist, business, or commuter and hopefully we will see expansion, both in number of trips and distance sooner rather than later.

I must say that this makes me quite happy

To focus the credit where it is due, keep in mind that the Downeaster was and is a State of Maine initiative. Amtrak is the operating contractor and the Guilford organization and MBTA provide the tracks, but absolutely nothing would have happened without strong state support and especially state funding. The whole process took a decade from conceptualization to operation and took a lot of work to pull off.

Obviously Maine is not the only state that underwrites Amtrak service, but the moral of the story is that if you want a new train to connect points A and B, the best place to drum up support is on the local level.

I am well aware that the present balkanized state of US regional passenger service isn't the fault of the present-day operators, but it would be nice if this increased ridership motivated NH to put up some money and MA to add some track capacity at North Station and between Wilmington and Lawrence. And then if a "reserved seat charge" plus my MBTA pass was accepted between Boston and Haverhill, it would approach what most Europeans expect as a matter of course.

Weekdays at 5:45 PM there are usually 8 or 10 people waiting at Haverhill, of all places, for the EB Downeaster that follows #227's markers across the bridge. It's not commuters, I don't see the same faces...

Today's Wall Street Journal notes the DownEaster's success. Included with their short article is a photo (any other Journal readers around here4 note how Prince Rupert likes photos as distinct from the Bancroft's graphic arts) of a P-42 - in Phase III livery.

Gilbert B Norman wrote:Today's Wall Street Journal notes the DownEaster's success. Included with their short article is a photo (any other Journal readers around here4 note how Prince Rupert likes photos as distinct from the Bancroft's graphic arts) of a P-42 - in Phase III livery.

although it was a small story, it was nice to see it get picked up in a national publication. It would see three factors converged such that the gods of rail smiled upon the downeaster....reduced trip time, increased frequency, and higher gas prices. This makes the second very successful service to benefit from track upgrades (the first being the Keystone). Mr. Norman, did you also see the article about US Airways? such articles lend hope to Amtrak as well, IMO.

Yeah, there's no question that the past year has seen a major change in perspective on the
Downeaster. Several years ago, when the expansions were first studied the attitude was
"Well, it would be nice if we could find the money, but we're not in any hurry". Now it's
like, "Hey, this is great, we really have to get these extensions done." I'd say the line
to Brunswick will definitely happen in a few years, and then if that's successful, maybe
Lewiston too. Some other things that have been overlooked are areas further south, and
people may give them a second look now too. That would include the line to Portsmouth
(only 7-8 miles from Newfields), the line to Rochester, (probably not, but may get another
look) and the stop in Plaistow, with now maybe 6 trains a day each way, giving them nearly
commuter rail level service. Who know, they may even try running the ski train up to Bethel
again!

I don't know if this would be the proper thread for it, but I was working on a mock poster for the Downeaster (purely to improve my graphic layout/design skills; certainly not a paid effort, heh). I'd love to get some feedback/thoughts from everyone, but don't want to just abruptly link to it.