Rockland Main Street supports pilot project extending Downeaster service
Courtesy / Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority
The Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority, the public transportation authority created in 1995 to oversee the Downeaster passenger rail service between Maine and Boston and points within Maine, is exploring a seasonal and weekend-only extension of service up to Rockland. This week it picked up the endorsement of Rockland Main Street Inc.
The board of directors of Rockland Main Street Inc. notified the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority that it fully supports the proposed pilot project to extend Amtrak Downeaster passenger rail service to Rockland beginning later this year.
In a Feb. 14 letter to John Melrose, NNEPRA’s chairman, Rockland Main Street Executive Director Gordon V. Page Sr. highlighted several of Rockland’s assets as the eastern terminus of the Rockland branch line.
Among them:
- The interior of the 6,000-square-foot Maine Central Railroad Depot, which was built in 1918 and currently owned by the State of Maine, “was renovated in 2006 to house a popular family-style restaurant and the administrative offices of the former contract rail operator; and the exterior was fully restored under the watchful eye of the Maine Historic Preservation Commission in 2008.”
- The track system between Brunswick and Rockland is in excellent shape and currently serves active freight rail customers. “The recent decade-long operation of the Maine Eastern Railroad passenger excursion operation should be positively viewed as a valuable look into the future of anticipated success for restored passenger service with the proposed Downeaster Coastal Connection."
- Rockland is an important cultural destination, with a vibrant and historic downtown that boasts a healthy Main Street containing two dozen art galleries, the Farnsworth Art Museum and, a block away, the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, 30 dining establishments, and more than 50 retail shops and boutiques within walking distance of the station. The entrance to the foot of Main Street and the downtown shopping district a short walk from the passenger boarding platform.
- There are more than 250 hotel and bed & breakfast rooms and suites in, and adjacent to the downtown district, plus several dozen short-term rental and independent lodging options.
- “A transportation hub intersected by U.S. Route 1, Rockland offers critical state ferry service to three year-round island communities; an airport that provides direct service to Boston, mail delivery to offshore islands, and charter air service for business and personal purposes; a valued stop along the Bangor to Boston bus route; and an increasingly important port of call for cruise ships on the western shore of Penobscot Bay,” Page concluded in the pitch to the governing board of the Amtrak Downeaster passenger train.
Finally, Page cited a number of festivals and celebrations scheduled to be held in Rockland Page said the Rockland Main Street board saw the Amtrak connection as one more element contributing to the economic revitalization of downtown Rockland and is committed to working NNEPRA to ensure the pilot project’s success.
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