Amtrak’s Downeaster line from Portland to Brunswick carried around 52,000 riders in its first year of service, nearly 50% higher than officials projected for the expanded service.
The Portland Press Herald reported the latest figures showed about two-thirds of the passengers boarded in Brunswick and the rest in Freeport for the period from Nov. 1 to Oct. 31, 2013.
Patricia Quinn, director of the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority, told the paper that overall ridership has grown 123% since 2005 and around 20% of the line’s total ridership commutes from Portland to Boston and the rest are leisure travelers, business travelers and students.
See historical Downeaster ridership from 2002 through September 2013: