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Downeaster soon to become the ‘Midcoaster’ |
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by Gina Hamilton
Coastal Journal staff
 BRUNSWICK -- Last Friday, Brunswick’s normally too-quiet Maine Street Station was ringing with good news ... and good cheer.
A plan to extend the Amtrak Downeaster, which now runs from Boston to Portland, got a much-needed shot in the arm from the federal government in the form of $35 million, to extend the Downeaster to Brunswick. “This is a significant economic boost to Maine,” Congresswoman Chellie Pingree said. “It will put over 200 people to work improving the rail line and bring economic development to downtown train stations in communities like Freeport and Brunswick.”
Work will begin immediately on the rail line, and train service to Brunswick is expected to start by the end of 2012.
Pingree has been urging Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood to fund the project. In a letter to LaHood last year she wrote “the Portland North Project will have an immediate and significant economic impact throughout the northeast region.”
“We’ve already seen how the Downeaster has created economic growth along the existing route,” Pingree said tonight. “Now it’s time to bring that to the midcoast.”
“This was such a competitive process,” said Patricia Quinn, Executive Director of the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority. “There were many, many requests for these grants and it’s really an honor that the Maine project was chosen.”
“If Maine had to borrow money to fund this project the interest costs alone would have been $18 million,” Quinn said. “This announcement means Maine taxpayers are going to save millions of dollars.”
Quinn said that the Downeaster project had asked for, and she believed it received, 100% of the funding necessary in the grant. “However, because we are starting the work later, there may be a little bit that Maine has to come up with. It won’t be much more.”
Pingree said the extension of the rail line is “a natural tourism generator. Freeport is the number one tourist destination in the state.”
This will fulfill the dream for an awful lot of Maine people to be able to get on the train in midcoast Maine and ride all the way to Boston,” said Wayne Davis, Chairman of Trainriders Northeast. “Nearly five million people go from the Boston area to Freeport to go shopping. That’s a big market that the Downeaster can tap into.”
The goal is to connect the Downeaster to the Maine Eastern excursion trains for travel all the way to Rockland, according to Gordon Page of Maine Eastern Railroad. “We will time our trains so that they can meet up with the Downeaster,” he said. “It will provide residents with a first-class rail experience, and be great for the midcoast economy.”
The high speed train, traveling up to 79 mph, will stop in Freeport, with its terminus in Brunswick. Passengers wishing to continue along Maine Eastern Rail will change trains at the new Maine Street Station and travel on the slower excursion train along the coast. Maine Eastern has stops in Bath, Wiscasset, with its terminus in Rockland.
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