Editor,

Several statements made by Rep. Gary Moore in a recent article are presented as fact in support of a rail line from Portland to Fryeburg, such as that the rail line will provide cheaper and more fuel efficient transportation than cars.

When is the last time that Mr. Moore took a train? I took the Amtrak train from Woburn, Mass. to Portland last year and ended up paying $28 for the privilege of spending three hours slowly chugging along to arrive more than a half hour late in Portland.

I started in Lowell, Mass., was driven to the train station in Lowell, paid about three dollars to take the train to Woburn, waited for the train in Woburn, and then had to have someone pick me up from Portland to take me the remaining one hour distance up to Naples. Total travel time was more than five hours for what normally is a two hour and 20 minute drive from Lowell. When you throw in the cost of gas to come down and pick me up the total cost is quite prohibitive.

Except within very large cities like New York, train transportation between cities has become a failed mode of transportation here in the United States. It is very expensive, slow, and extremely inconvenient.

Spending upwards of $50 million to provide rail transportation from Portland to Fryeburg is a total waste of public money. And, in fact, if we took $50 million and invested it in long-term bonds, we might have enough in interest earnings to provide free door-to-door bus service for anyone in Portland that might have an interest in going to Fryeburg.

However, providing a rail link will not be fuel efficient, cheaper or more convenient, as the article states. If this was such a great idea, then the owner of the tracks would probably have done it a long time ago.

Steve Tingas

Naples