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Michael Johnson of Bucksport is a second-year student in Thomas College’s three-year bachelor’s degree program. He is majoring in digital media/multimedia design with a minor in marketing.
There are three main ways to travel around Maine. Driving, buses, and by rail. Of these three, passenger rail service is only confined to the region south of Brunswick. Granted, that is where much of the state’s population is located but wouldn’t the entire state be best served by passenger rail rather than a part of it? I have taken the Downeaster several times to travel to Boston and while the service is good, there is more that it can offer.
At one time, the state of Maine was home to a network of passenger trains stretching from Portland to Bangor, east to Bar Harbor and north to Caribou operated by three railroads. The most notable trains were the Boston to Bangor trains. These services were augmented by heavy summer traffic to Bar Harbor, with people traveling from as far south as New York City and Washington, D.C. by rail.
Today, those passenger trains are gone. Maine is currently served by one passenger rail service: Amtrak’s Downeaster, managed by the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority (NNEPRA) between Boston, Portland, and Brunswick with five daily round trips. The service has so far been extended only once with its northern terminus moving from Portland to Brunswick in 2012, with two round trips and then five round trips by 2019. In FY2025, the Downeaster carried 549,120 people.
Extending the Downeaster further north to Augusta or to Orono could provide benefits beyond serving as merely a transportation option. A study commissioned by the Maine Rail Group and conducted and published by the Rail Passengers Association reported that extending two round trips of the Downeaster could deliver $61.7 million in economic benefits to the state and projected that the extended service would attract 260,000 additional riders in the first year of operation. In addition, additional ridership would decrease miles driven on Maine roads by 5.9 million, which can lower maintenance costs and reduce carbon emissions.
Aside from economic and climate benefits, an extended Downeaster can be a viable transportation option for those that have no alternatives. Between Orono and Portland along the potential route of the Downeaster, there are no less than a dozen colleges. Many of the students who attend these campuses include those who live outside the state and/or do not own a car.
Conditions are changing that are making expansion more viable. Since 2022, CSX Transportation, the owner of much of the Downeaster’s route of its potential extension, has been embarking on a program to invest over $100 million to upgrade rail infrastructure in the state, with tracks on most of the main lines now permitted for 40 miles per hour for freight and faster for passenger trains. Station projects are currently underway with the station in Wells being expanded to allow six daily round trips and moving the stop in Portland to a location that would save 15 minutes of travel time.
One of the biggest changes coming is to the equipment itself. In the next few years, the Downeaster is one of the routes that will receive brand-new six-car trains built by Siemens Mobility. These will replace locomotives that date back to the 1990s, and passenger cars that date back to the mid-1970s, while reducing carbon emissions and expanding passenger capacity.
With service improvements underway and new equipment coming online, now is the time for the Downeaster to be extended to better serve the people of Maine. It’s time for Maine to get onboard with passenger rail.