Downeaster operator eyeing more funds
Though officials who operate the Downeaster Amtrak train service were thrilled they were awarded $35 million by the federal government to expand from Portland to Brunswick, they aren't resting on their laurels just yet.
Patricia Quinn, executive director of the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority in Portland, says her group is still making a push for $52 million to make track improvements that would create two more daily round-trips from Portland to Boston after that application was rejected by the federal government.
"There are other sources of funding," Quinn says. "We have no idea if there will be additional stimulus funding."
Rail authority officials are waiting to see what type of grant program the Federal Rail Administration in Washington, D.C., may put together from the estimated $2.5 billion set aside in the fiscal year 2010 federal budget or the $1.1 billion in the fiscal year 2011 federal budget for high-speed rail projects.
As soon as the federal agency announces the rules that rail authorities like NNEPRA must follow to access whatever money may be available, Quinn says they will proceed.
NNEPRA was awarded $35 million from the federal economic stimulus in January and the group will use the funds to make track improvements on the 30-mile route from Portland to Brunswick with a 2012 completion date. The train will also allow passengers from Boston and other points south to connect to the midcoast by taking the Maine Eastern Railroad seasonal train from Brunswick to Rockland.
But Quinn says NNEPRA officials want to do as much as they can to improve the Portland to Boston rail corridor so they can grow their business.
"We need to keep our eyes on the prize," says Quinn about future rail corridor improvements.
Unlike the Portland to Brunswick project, Quinn says improving the 76 miles of rail lines from Portland to Boston is more complicated.
She says the $52 million would be used to improve the tracks from Portland to Plaistow, N.H., and a separate plan is needed to make the same track improvements from Plaistow to Boston.
Both segments involve the cooperative of Pan Am, the company that owns Guilford Rail Systems, and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, she says.
Quinn maintains that future project is important if the Downeaster ever hopes to achieve a two-hour trip from Portland to Boston. Currently, the same trip that is offered five times daily takes 2 hours and 25 minutes, she says.
The $52 million worth of track improvements from Portland to Plaistow, N.H., would reduce the Portland to Boston run by 10 minutes, she says. It would also enable the train to travel up to 75 miles per hour in some areas instead of 65 miles per hour, Quinn says.
Quinn says cutting that trip by just 10 minutes will bring the Downeaster an estimated 100,000 more riders the first year after it is completed.
In 2009, Quinn says the Downeaster had 460,000 riders and generated $6.5 million in revenue from just ticket sales. The Amtrak train also utilizes a $6 million annual federal subsidy to cover all of its expenses, she says.
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