u/critical_courtney

Riding my bike around Mill Creek always makes me happy. I’d love to live there someday if any affordable housing made its way into the area.

Hi there, Portland.

The Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority (which operates/runs/oversees the Amtrak Downeaster) came to Portland tonight for a town hall at The Roux Institute. Seeing as Amtrak is my hyperfixation, I'm an ex-journo, and I'm just a super cool person with nothing better to do on a Tuesday night, I went and took some notes.

Patricia Quinn, Executive Director of NNEPRA, gave the presentation. She answered plenty of questions, even a few pointed/heated ones.

When it comes to the Downeaster, one of the primary topics most people here and on r/amtrak often ask about is a Bangor expansion, and there's really no new information on that front. She was asked twice about it, and it's just not in the cards right now. The money and willpower just aren't there. In the distant future? Who knows. She didn't want to say never, but the blunt answer is not right now.

While the presentation did touch upon current rail upgrades and ongoing projects, a good chunk of tonight's slides (and questions) were centered around moving Portland's train station from its current location at The Concord Coach/Portland Transportation Center.

NNEPRA has gotten as far as project engineering (with current designs, I believe, approved by CSX and Amtrak) and is currently seeking federal funds for building a new station on St. John Street. Right now, the cost is $60 million.

Quinn said current estimates show that moving the train station from the PTC to St. John Street will bring in around 66,000 new riders. And it would shave 15 minutes off the ride time that's currently taken up by having the Downeaster back up onto a branch line to reach the PTC.

However, the project is currently at a standstill because the City of Portland and NNEPRA want the new station constructed at different sites. Quinn said NNEPRA is planning to enter into mediation with city leadership and hoped it would be expedited.

Quinn told the crowd tonight that the land where the City of Portland wants the new train station to go isn't available because part of the site is owned by Northern Light Mercy Hospital, and another part is owned by/comes very close to the Cumberland County Jail. And neither wants to part with the land. She said multiple times that the Cumberland County Sheriff doesn't want the new train station to be very close to the jail.

A gentleman (whose name I definitely would've gotten if I were still a working journalist) identified himself as being related to people who own the land where NNEPRA wants to construct the new train station. Specifically, he said his sons (who currently have a burger food truck on the land where the new train station would go) don't want to sell. But if they get forced out, "it is what it is." He expressed displeasure with NNEPRA's current proposed site.

Concerns were raised about parking at the new station location, and Quinn said she was confident there would be enough room for around 200 parking spaces, plus expected cooperation with Greater Portland Metro to get bus service to the train station.

The station relocation seemed to be an important lynchpin in future upgrade plans, including adding a seventh and eighth round-trip train in the day, with the hope of getting a Downeaster coming and going every couple of hours. Currently, plans are underway to add a sixth Downeaster between Wells and Brunswick aimed at interstate work travel, with a schedule that would bring folks from Wells into Portland at 8 a.m. and would leave at 5 p.m.

This sixth round-trip train is part of ongoing improvements at Wells, including a new train station, expansion of double-tracking from its current two miles to eight miles, and a second platform. A new train station at West Falmouth is also being explored, with the goal of giving people from L/A a quick access point for the Downeaster from the interstate. This way, they wouldn't have to come into Portland to catch a ride.

Quinn said right now 86 percent of Downeaster traffic is travel to and from Boston, while six percent is travel within Maine. The sixth round-trip train is aimed at boosting those interstate travel numbers for workers traveling from Wells to Portland, Freeport, or Brunswick in the morning.

The proposed seventh and eighth round-trip trains cannot happen until Portland's train station is moved to the main line. Quinn said CSX (who owns the railroad) won't allow more trains due to the bottleneck created by current trainsets having to back up to reach the PTC.

CSX did recently finished replacing over 130,000 rail ties on its New Hampshire and Maine tracks. And that, combined with the installation of Positive Train Control, has allowed the Downeaster to increase its on-time performance from the upper 80s to 95 percent in May, according to Quinn.

And that seemed to largely be her point in the presentation that while folks are always asking about big, sweeping projects like a Bangor expansion, NNEPRA is more focused on moderate improvements that will, over time, lead to a better Downeaster experience. Faster route times to make the train more competitive with driving to Boston, keeping an eye on the feasibility of expanding the Downeaster to Rockland (something which fell apart in 2024), and adding trips for more frequent availability.

Quinn said the Rockland Branch is a "lovely piece of rail," and NNEPRA would love to expand that way in the future. When asked if NNEPRA had any ongoing communications with Cumberland & Knox Railroad, which is planning excursion trains between Brunswick and Rockland under the name Pen Bay Scenic Railroad, she said they haven't had any official talks about syncing up excursion trains with the Downeaster's schedule, but she wished them the best of luck. Quinn added that due to rail regulations, those excursion trains cannot yet come into Brunswick Station

When asked about any future plans for connections between Boston North Station and Boston South Station to better allow Downeaster passengers to transfer to other Amtrak trains like the Northeast Regional, the Acela, or the Lake Shore Limited, Quinn said that while a rapid bus connection is proposed now and again, right now, there's nothing officially in the works.

She pointed out that Downeaster travelers at Boston North Station who need to connect with other Amtrak trains can take the MBTA's Orange Line to the Back Bay Station to catch any of the above-named trains. And CharlieCards for Boston's transit network can be purchased in the Downeaster's cafe car.

One person asked if Old Orchard Beach stops could be made a permanent fixture of the Downeaster, instead of just seasonal as it is now. Quinn said previous Old Orchard Beach data had been underwhelming, but they were going to watch traffic closely with hopes for better numbers this summer.

(That's about all I remember from the meeting. It ran smoothly, but I'll be honest, I found my first visit to the Roux Institute a little overwhelming. It's a super fancy place, and I. . . worried I was too poor to linger there long lol.)

Someday I’ll get into birding. But this week, a new songbird moved in and started singing. It’s just two notes, both high pitched about every 20 seconds or so.

Can someone help me identify it? It sings twice in this clip.