BRUNSWICK

A ll aboard.

Finally.

Festooned with bunting and laden with dignitaries, Amtrak’s Downeaster left North Station in Boston this morning on its inaugural run to Freeport and Brunswick.

Allowing for ceremony at each of the nine stops along the way, Train No. 681 was scheduled to arrive in Freeport at 12:45 p.m. and Brunswick at 1:35 p.m.

With apologies to Arlo Guthrie and Steve Goodman, today’s “Whistle Stop Celebration” is as close as Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority gets to capping two years of anticipated railway expansion.

Today’s trip is ceremonial only, the flashy culmination of a $38 million, two-year odyssey to expand passenger rail service north of Portland.

Service for the public begins Friday morning, when the first of two daily round trips will leave from Brunswick Station at 7:05 a.m. and will stop at Freeport Station 15 minutes later, ultimately gliding into North Station at 10:30 a.m.

Although she warned that it’s difficult to qualify ridership by advance ticket sales, New England Passenger Rail Authority Executive Director Patricia Quinn said reservations for the first weekend of service have been brisk.

“Right now, numbers for the weekend following start of service in Brunswick are about double what they are in Portland,” Quinn said.

Adult coach-class fares range from $27 one-way to $58 roundtrip, depending on the time of day, with businessclass tickets running about $8 more per trip.

Tickets can be reserved online at amtrak.com or by calling 1-800-872-7245.

Nelson Soule, who served as the ticketing agent, telegraph operator and freight handler before rail service ended in Freeport in 1960, will be one of the first people aboard the Downeaster today.

Now 91, Soule once served as the station manager in Freeport.

“I think it’s great,” Soule said Wednesday. “You’ve got everything to gain and nothing to lose.”

In addition to Soule, the first 250 riders will include Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph Szabo, Amtrak Vice President Joe McHugh and the transportation commissioners in Maine and New Hampshire, among others.

The expansion to Freeport, home to L.L. Bean’s flagship store and outlet shopping, and to Brunswick, home of Bowdoin College and Brunswick Landing, fulfills the original vision for the passenger rail service, which launched between Portland and Boston on Dec. 15, 2001.

The Downeaster is coming off a record year with 528,292 passengers, and ridership is expected to grow by an additional 36,000 passengers with the expanded service.

The Downeaster currently serves eight communities between Boston and Portland: Old Orchard Beach, Saco and Wells in Maine; Dover, Durham and Exeter in New Hampshire; and Haverhill and Woburn in Massachusetts.

The expansion was made possible through $38.3 million in federal stimulus dollars, which was used to overhaul 30 miles of track and rehabilitate 36 crossings between Portland and Brunswick.

The state also spent a halfmillion dollars to install train platforms in Freeport and Brunswick.

As for Soule, he isn’t especially nostalgic about rail travel.

He came from a family of telegraph operators and got into the rail business after he left the Navy, working as station manager in Freeport and watching as trucks ate into rail service, which was eventually discontinued. All told, he put in 38 years in the railroad business.

He said he’s ridden on the Downeaster once and was impressed. “They’re doing a good business, I’ll say that. Their business is increasing every year,” he said.

During most of his career, coal-fired locomotives pulled the passenger cars and freight cars. These days, the Downeaster uses diesel-electric locomotives.

If he ever pines for the old days, he can always visit his old train station. After it closed, it was removed in pieces and reassembled in Boothbay, where it serves as a train museum.

Associated Press writer

David Sharp contributed to this report.

jtleonard@timesrecord.com