Douglas Rooks has been a Maine editor and columnist for 41 years. His biography of Gov. Ken Curtis, “Transformational,” is now available. He welcomes comment at [email protected].
Passenger rail service in Maine scored its first big success since Amtrak trains started running to Brunswick in 2012 when the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) last Friday announced a $48 million grant to relocate the current Portland station to a site near Mercy Hospital.
There are good reasons for the new station to be there. The Portland City Council has long preferred a different location about 1,000 feet farther north, but seems to be getting on board now.
The primary goal for the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority (NNEPRA), which manages Amtrak’s Downeaster service in Maine, is to shave 15 minutes off run times to both Portland and Brunswick — a major factor in the highly competitive Maine-to-Boston route. Locally, new housing in Freeport will be 20 minutes away instead of 35 minutes. That’s because the current station on outer Congress Street is located on a branch line called the Mountain Division, and trains have to back out before resuming trips north and south.
Yet the new station could do a lot more, literally opening up a new era of passenger and freight rail travel in Maine, if the state’s leaders would only listen to the growing popular demand for new service. (Disclosure: I did consulting work for rail advocacy groups from 2022-25.)
The new station location could expedite Amtrak service to Lewiston, Waterville and Bangor — perfectly feasible, according to a 2025 study by the Rail Passengers Association, which found $61.7 million in annual benefits statewide from such an expansion.
The respected Maine firm Critical Insights found that 60% of Mainers would ride the northern extension at least occasionally, and that 63% would support a state bond issue to cover startup costs.
Along the coast, passenger service could resume on the state-owned Rockland Branch, where a new operator, the Cumberland & Knox Railroad, provides freight service and recently acquired passenger coaches.
Across the world, in China and Asia, Europe and in other states, rail transportation has become an important part of combating climate change, boosting tourism, providing affordable housing without the need for cars and parking lots and relieving highway congestion.
Despite all these favorable trends, state government’s reaction to Amtrak extensions to date has been an unequivocal “no,” despite the Downeaster continuing to set ridership records.
It’s hard to understand. Despite reductions from its original 19th century footprint, Maine still has a rail network that would be the envy of most states, extending from Kittery to Madawaska — as the Maine Turnpike still does not — reaching far-flung parts of the state with few roads.
Yet NNEPRA’s current management insists the Portland and Brunswick stations are the farthest we can ever hope to go, though that limits service to just two of Maine’s 16 counties while the entire state helps pay the costs. State Department of Transportation “propensity” studies in response to legislative initiatives consistently overestimate costs and underestimate ridership through outdated assumptions, discouraging further action.
The DOT goes even further in the wrong direction. Although limited FRA-funded freight expansion passes muster, it’s dead set against any further use of state-owned rail lines purchased through voter-approved bond issues for that purpose.
A case in point is the Mountain Division, where Amtrak now uses the first few miles. The line runs northwest through populous Westbrook, Gorham and Standish and would seem ripe for rail study, especially since the Maine Turnpike’s long-planned Gorham Connector has been abandoned. DOT is instead trying to remove Mountain Division tracks for a recreational trail, even though rail-with-trail segments already exist in both Standish and Fryeburg.
A successful excursion line operator, the Conway Scenic Railroad — which has recently doubled boardings through the White Mountains’ spectacular Crawford Notch segment — has proposed freight service on the Mountain Division’s Maine tracks, yet can barely get a hearing from the DOT. A historic connection extending from Vermont all the way to downtown Portland could be lost forever.
In truth, no recent DOT commissioner has displayed much interest in rail — or buses, vans and ferries. Initiatives that bore fruit in the McKernan and King administrations have long since dissipated, along with the “balanced transportation system” they envisioned.
There’s a new administration coming next year, one that can acknowledge that the highway-only approach has failed. Far fewer young people own cars than in previous generations. Rail tourism and recreation is growing by leaps and bounds. Who wouldn’t want to take a train from Boston and skip the five-hour ordeal to Mount Desert Island among 4 million annual visitors?
Ideas that change federal and state policy are often derided as “pie in the sky” at the outset. Instead of rejecting them, we ought to listen to what Mainers are saying, and take heed.