BRUNSWICK — TrainRiders Northeast will hold its 37th Annual Meeting starting at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 4 in Bowdoin College’s Moulton Union, 6 Campus Road. The purpose of the meeting will be to elect directors and hold a brief membership meeting, followed by presentations from the following speakers on issues relevant to passenger rail service in Maine and the Northeast:
Rusty Roberts is a senior policy advisor at the Federal Railroad Administration. He previously served as vice president for government relations at Florida East Coast Industries/Brightline and as managing director of government affairs at Barbour, Griffith & Rogers in Washington, DC. Earlier, he was chief of staff to U.S. Reps. John Mica and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida. He holds engineering degrees from West Point and Georgia Tech, as well as an MBA in finance from Long Island University.
Dale Doughty is commissioner of the Maine Department of Transportation. A Maine Certified Geologist, he joined MDOT in 1996 and has held leadership roles in environmental services, planning, maintenance, and operations. He also served as public works director and deputy city administrator for Lewiston before returning to MDOT, where he became deputy commissioner in 2024, acting commissioner in 2025 and commissioner in 2026.
Patricia Quinn joined the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority in 2000 and became its executive director in 2005. She serves on the executive committees of the State Amtrak Intercity Passenger Rail Committee and the States for Passenger Rail Coalition, is a member of the PACTS Transit Committee and participates in the Maine Climate Council’s Transportation Working Group. She has also received numerous awards for her contributions to passenger rail.
Jim Matthews is president and CEO of the Rail Passengers Association, a national nonprofit advocating for better, safer and more widely available transit and intercity rail. He has served on multiple federal advisory agencies and testified before Congress and federal transportation agencies, and in 2024 was appointed to the Passenger Rail Advisory Committee of the U.S. Surface Transportation Board. He previously spent six years at Aviation Week and Space Technology, rising to executive editor, and holds a bachelor’s degree in government from Harvard.
David Swirk has served as president, general manager and co-owner of the Conway Scenic Railroad since 2018.
Finn Kelly is business development and government relations manager for Cumberland & Knox Railroad, Belfast & Moosehead Lake Railroad and Maine Switching Services.
The meeting will also celebrate 25 years of Amtrak’s Downeaster service between Brunswick and Boston.
Formed in 1989, TrainRiders Northeast is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that educates the public and policymakers about the benefits of passenger rail and advocates for rail as part of a balanced transportation system. Through its political action committee, Railvision, the organization gathered nearly 90,000 signatures supporting passage of the Passenger Rail Service Act, which the Maine Legislature adopted in 1991 as the first citizen-initiated bill in state history to pass without a public vote. In 1995, TrainRiders also helped secure legislation creating the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority. Its advocacy contributed to the launch of Amtrak’s Downeaster service between Portland and Boston in 2001 and its extension to Brunswick in 2012. TrainRiders also operated an onboard host program until the pandemic and continues to provide station hosts at several Downeaster stops. Today, its priorities include preserving Maine rail corridors, supporting short line freight service, advancing the relocation of Portland’s Downeaster station to the main line near St. John Street and across the tracks from the Mercy Hospital parking lot, restoring an additional coach car to Downeaster trains, and promoting renewed passenger rail service between Boston and New York via Worcester, Springfield, Hartford, and New Haven.
More information about TrainRiders is available at www.trainridernw.org (please be forgiving of the site, as it is being updated and was just moved to a new service provider about 2 weeks ago). For more information about the above and any other issues regarding passenger rail, please contact TrainRiders as follows:
F. Bruce Sleeper, president
TrainRiders Northeast
PO Box 4869
Portland, ME 04112
fbsleeper@trainridersne.org
Physical Address:
500 Forest Avenue, Unit 10
Portland, ME 04101
Tel. 207-879-7245
Cell 207-776-1648