Green Commuters – Check Out Rail for Greater Portland
More alternatives to autos may become possible for Greater Portland – if residents want to push for sustainable rail transit.
“Commuter” rail transit in and out of Portland is suddenly “on the table” and a possibility for funding, so people who want to wean the city from cars should consider supporting rail toward it’s most efficient ($ and resources) role in transporting Greater Portland’s people.
Current rail “action” includes the Maine Department of Transportation (MDOT)State Rail Plan and MDOT’s Portland North analysis of commuter transit alternatives to the communities north of Portland. Both projects are scheduled for completion soon with possible major impacts on the future of Greater Portland’s regional transportation scene.
What’s driving this sudden attention to rail? Possible funding is coming to state governments for rail projects as new faces in Washington see rail corridors and technologies as a way to reduce oil consumption and the air and landscape pollution from automobiles, and at the same time Maine realizes that its huge road network is increasingly unaffordable.
Within the Greater Portland region there are lots of reasons to care about this rediscovery of rail – not the least of which is urban livability.
Also, as we move into the future…
- People simply have to be transported with less economy-draining energy and less climate-changing carbon.
- Family dependence on 2 or 3 cars for life’s necessities is an expense that increasingly leaves many Mainer’s in the economic dust.
- Cars make the urban and near-urban landscapes ugly and expensive to maintain.
- We can read and work and meet new people on public rail transit instead of cursing them at highway intersections.
- Channeling lots of people through compact, unpaved rail corridors may be far better on the landscape and on taxpayer pocketbooks than creating paved space for more highway vehicles and filling up our communities with a 2-ton container for virtually every metro-area commuter.
So what rail action is happening in and about our fair city?
Sensing that money might flow to governments for rail facilities, MDOT is preparing the Maine State Rail Plan to set statewide priorities for investment in rail. MDOT is also looking at specific public transit alternatives to move people between Portland and communities to the north — Yarmouth, Auburn, Lewiston, Freeport and Brunswick.
MDOT’s Maine State Rail Plan process was originally focused on freight rail and the DownEaster. Then some outspoken Portland people – including the Maine Rail Transit Coalition – made it clear that regional transit of people in and out of Portland – “commuter” transit – must be part of any State Rail Plan. So Greater Portland “commuter” rail is being examined – at least for some communities.
What rail projects are being considered that affect this area?
Better freight rail – much of which comes through Portland – is recognized by the State Rail Plan process as key to Maine’s future economy, and significant improvements to Maine rail freight service are bubbling up in the MDOT planning process. Extension of DownEaster service to Brunswick and Downeaster upgrades for faster passenger rail service to Boston are also big items in the evolving plan.
But in addition, the rail planning conversation is increasingly including rail as a way to relieve Portland area people from our car burdens – burdens that we’ve lived with for so long that many residents under age 65 have lost sight of the fact that there actually are better alternatives.
Portland is blessed with many rail corridors that most local residents are hardly aware of. Train service can be established, upgraded or made more appropriate to our needs in some of these corridors. Most of us know the PanAm (and DownEaster) rail corridor and passenger (not commuter) service to Saco and beyond. There are also two excellent rail corridors to Yarmouth and Auburn – one of them goes all the way to Montreal with pretty good track quality. Another line makes a straight shot to Westbrook and on to Windham and Standish, then to Fryeburg and Conway, NH. Then there are corridors for the hoped-for DownEaster service to Freeport and Brunswick – and possible commuter service to those towns as well.
What services can we develop with this great resource of rail transit corridors?
Significant replacement of the automobile is the overall objective – to halt the increasing car domination of our downtown areas and to reduce the true cost of transportation for residents throughout the Greater Portland region. More specifics of potential rail service options can be presented in future articles, but think of hopping onto a train in Westbrook, going into Portland for the evening or for work, no need to find parking in-town, and no concern for an OUI stop on the way home. Or what about hopping on a train at the Maine State Pier and going to Montreal for the weekend?
Much is possible if the U.S. decides to allocate its public resources in a more constructive fashion than current priorities – and if Portland-area people get engaged in imaginative process of visioning a rail transit future.
How to engage in the rail visioning process?
1) Track the Maine State Rail Plan at http://www.maine.gov/mdot/railplan/index.htm. Contribute your opinions and comments at that website. The MDOT planners are paying close attention to the large volume of comments. They expect to complete the plan in January, so time is of the essence.
2) Contact the Portland Area Comprehensive Transit System at the Greater Portland Council of Governments www.pactsplan.org and give them your opinions regarding the value of specific rail services for Greater Portland.
3) Contact your City or town council, town/city planner or selectmen and urge them to push the State and PACTS rail planning toward your community’s sustainable transit interests.
4) Help us build rail awareness and conversation by becoming a member of the Maine Rail Transit Coalition – and add your thoughts to the Maine rail conversation at http://mainerailtransit.blogspot.com/
5) Contact Tony Donovan tdonovan@maine.rr.com or Gary Higginbottom ghiggin2@earthlink.net to get more information and discuss specific opportunities for involvement in rail scenario thinking for Greater Portland’s future.
6) Write letters to the editor citing your interest in rail and how you would use rail transit between the major communities of Greater Portland.