If there ever was a time to demonstrate the rationale for the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority’s “storage barn” in Brunswick, it was the past few days of extreme Maine weather. The availability of a $13-million, 52,000-squarefoot heated building capable of holding three entire train sets overnight was claimed to be essential for service reliability.
On Sunday, Feb. 12, booster group TrainRiders / Northeast’s Facebook page proclaimed, “Once again, the Downeaster will be the only dependable public transportation up and running tomorrow. It will, however, operate on a modified schedule in anticipation of lower ridership. The Amtrak Downeaster travels in all kinds of weather!”
With a winter blizzard raging on Monday, February 13, NNEPRA wisely decided to operate two of the normal five trips to Boston. Only one actually made the run, departing Brunswick on time and arriving in Boston two hours and 26 minutes late.
The next day, under improved conditions, the snow-covered morning train stored outside in sub-freezing weather at Portland departed on time and was only 16 minutes late at North Station. The first train housed overnight in Brunswick, however, inexplicably left for Boston 35 minutes behind schedule. The second southbound Brunswick-based train (also in the warming barn) was canceled for unstated reasons.
The moral of this short story is that Brunswick’s impressive overnight layover facility proved of little value compared with the Portland-based train exposed to harsh elements. Meanwhile, Amtrak’s daily “Ethan Allen Express” and “Vermonter,” routinely stored outside in all weather, left their respective terminals (Rutland and St. Albans, Vermont) marginally late on Monday, and both Tuesday departures were punctual.
NNEPRA management commendably reduced the schedule during this trying period, but should be embarrassed that the uncovered Portland train performed more dependably than its Brunswick counterparts. In the interest of transparency to the traveling public and Maine taxpayers, a full explanation should be posted on the NNEPRA website.
George C. Betke, Jr.,
President, Transport
Economics, Inc.
Newcastle
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