(The following article by Clare Kittredge was posted on the Boston Globe website on February 12.)
BOSTON — Just after 7 a.m. every weekday morning, Steve Sullivan drives his Ford pickup truck from home to the Exeter, N.H., train station on Lincoln Street to catch the 7:33 Amtrak Downeaster to Boston.
Seventy-seven minutes and two stops later, the train pulls into Boston’s North Station. A hop on the T and, by 9:10 a.m., Sullivan is at work as a business analyst for a downtown Boston insurance firm. At night, he reverses his trek, riding the 6:15 Downeaster north from Boston and getting back to Exeter by 7:35 p.m.
For the convenience of not having to brave snowstorms and being able to read a book or indulge in his crossword puzzle ”addiction,” Sullivan pays $160 a month for unlimited Exeter-Boston trips, or $85 for 10 trips (a fare increase will go into effect in March). ”It’s well worth it,” he said.
Sullivan is one of a growing number of southern New Hampshire commuters riding the Amtrak Downeaster from Exeter to Boston.
After two years of service, Exeter is the most popular station for commuters riding the Downeaster to work in Boston, according to Patricia Douglas, manager of marketing and development for the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority.
”The commuter market is definitely a growing market for us,” Douglas said. ”While the Portland-Boston segment is shrinking, it’s business from other places to Boston that’s growing.”
”This stop usually picks up about 40 regular commuters and usually another 10 or so,” said conductor Peter McHugh, ushering a sleepy crowd onto the Downeaster in Exeter on a recent morning.
”All aboard!” called McHugh, leading passengers onto the red-white-and-blue-striped silver train. With a wail and a rumble, the Downeaster was gone.
The Downeaster makes four runs a day between Portland and Boston. The service is owned and funded by the state of Maine through the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority, which contracts with Amtrak to operate it.
The first train leaves Portland at 6:05 a.m., and gets to Boston at 8:50 a.m. after eight stops in Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. The last train leaves Boston at 11:15 p.m., getting to Portland at 2 a.m.
Stops on the way include a seasonal stop in Old Orchard Beach, Maine, and Saco and Wells, also in Maine; Dover, Durham, and Exeter, in New Hampshire; and Haverhill, Woburn, and North Station.
Overall ridership on the Downeaster’s Portland-to-Boston line was up 6.2 percent, from 60,730 in the last three months of 2002, to 64,501 in the same period of 2003, according to Douglas.
But the number of passengers who rode all the way from Portland to Boston was down 9.6 percent, from 27,729 in the last three months of 2002 to 25,064 in the last three months of 2003.
Douglas speculated that bus services competing with the Downeaster are luring some riders away, while others are using other stations on the train’s Boston-Portland line, where ridership is growing.
Ridership on the Downeaster’s Exeter-Boston run rose 20 percent in the three-month period. Riders on the Downeaster’s Durham-Boston run went up 180.4 percent, an increase Douglas attributes to more student riders.
Meanwhile, 4,885 passengers took the Dover-Boston line in the period, up from 4,665. Exeter and Dover, which both offer parking, are increasingly popular stops for commuters working in Boston.
Most commuters buy monthly passes allowing unlimited trips any time during a calendar month. Douglas said fares for the 30-day pass and the 10-ride pass are going up 7 percent, effective in March. When that happens, a roundtrip commuter pass from Exeter will jump from $160 to $171 a month.
”Even at $171 a month, that’s only $8.55 a day to commute,” Douglas said. ”And it was $160, so it went up 55 cents a day, less than cup of coffee.”
From Oct. 1 through Dec. 31, 2003, Amtrak sold 83 monthly commuter passes from Exeter to Boston. By comparison, 24 people bought similar passes during the same period from Durham to Boston, and 17 people bought commuter passes from Dover to Boston.
Douglas also said commuters build camaraderie during their travels.
”We have a real great group of commuters,” she said. ”They have their own website [www.downeastriders.us]. They choose their conductor of the month and their food service of the month. I contact them regularly. We have a really good relationship with them, and we hope to grow that segment of the business.”
On a recent Tuesday, Sharon Fernald waited in Exeter for the 7:33 a.m. train to Boston. Fernald, who lives in Raymond, works as a patent assistant in a downtown Boston law firm.
”It’s better than the commuter rail,” said Fernald, 33. ”It’s just a whole different experience. This is a lot nicer, a lot more comfortable, and a lot more friendly.”
Fernald said she belongs to a group of riders who commute every day to jobs in Boston. ”There’s a group of us regulars, about 10 to 15 of us in a cohesive unit,” Fernald explained. ”We just wind up sitting together.”
”Some of us have a poker game,” Fernald said. ”Last night, it was someone’s birthday, and we had cake and brownies. Last week, we had cheese and crackers. It’s really cool.
”People marvel at how far I commute to work,” she said. ”But it’s the time I have to hang out and socialize. It eases the burden of commuting. I might read a magazine or a book or just chat. It’s always different. It’s three hours a day when you get to do something you want to do.”