(The following article by Jenna Russell was posted on the Boston Globe website on August 8.)
BETWEEN BRUNSWICK AND ROCKLAND, Maine — When a moose was finally spotted from the Rockland-bound train yesterday, almost two hours into the eastbound trek, word spread quickly, car to car, and passengers turned to scan the marsh on the inland side of the tracks.
Most missed the moose, which moved deeper into the woods. But there were few complaints on the train, only the third passenger trip east of Portland in 30 years, with so much else to see: eagles’ nests and osprey, fields of heather and goldenrod, clam diggers silhouetted against distant sand flats.
The train’s top attraction may have been the view of what it spared its riders, the August traffic inching east on overloaded Route 1.
“It’s relaxing,” said Fernand Rivard, 67, a Lewiston retiree riding with his wife and friends. “Route 1 is a killer. It takes a half an hour to go through one little town.”
The Rockland train service was promoted as part of the Maine Lobster Festival, which drew thousands to Rockland this weekend. The experiment, planned by the state and operated by Maine Eastern Railroad, was meant to make a case for a permanent service expansion. Governor John Baldacci kicked off the route last month, and festival-bound trips began Thursday, with the last one today. The $40 round-trip tickets, which included lobster festival admission, sold out in three weeks. The train will continue to carry passengers on weekends through October.
“People love trains,” said Patricia Douglas, spokeswoman for the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority. “We could have sold 200 more tickets.”
As passengers lined up for yesterday’s 7:30 a.m. departure, Tom and Barbara Casey stood nearby with a cardboard sign that read, “Need 2 tickets.” Their gamble paid off when train officials took pity and allowed them to ride in the dining car.
“It’s a novelty, a throwback,” said Tom Casey, 65, as the train whistled and pulled out on time. “You can’t go on a train ride around here anymore.”
With one stop in Bath to pick up more passengers, the 55-mile trip took 2 hours and 15 minutes. The top speed was 50 miles per hour; it will go faster when track upgrades are finished. Views ranged from backyard trampolines, clotheslines, and gazebos to wild coastline, with shady woods giving way to sparkling salt marsh. At dozens of road crossings, train-watchers gathered to wave and snap pictures of the twin green-and-yellow locomotives and six vintage cars bearing names like Pine and Elm. The coaches date to the 1940s and ’50s, but have been updated with plush seating and climate controls.
Thirty years ago, sleeper cars still carried vacationers from New York City to Rockland, train officials said. In recent years, the eastern tracks, built in the 1870s and newly refurbished, have carried only freight: steel plate bound for Bath Iron Works, coal and scrap metal, and oil for packing sardines at Rockland canneries, among other products.
Joan Fournier of Millinocket bought tickets for yesterday’s trip after failing to find a hotel room in Rockland, and she rose at 3 a.m. with her family for the 2 hour drive south to Brunswick. She looked tired, but happy.
“When you take the train,” she said, “you don’t have to fight the traffic.”
A business plan by the state and rail authority calls for expanded service from Portland to Brunswick by 2009, Douglas said. Amtrak, which operates the three-year-old Downeaster from Boston to Portland, has been asked to operate the new leg. Meanwhile, she said, officials hope to firm up plans for a simultaneous expansion from Brunswick to Rockland.
In Rockland, some merchants said train service could boost business, at least in the summer. “It can’t hurt, as long as there’s ridership,” Trade Winds Motor Inn owner Bob Liberty said. “It depends on the schedule and how expensive it is.”
Some passengers voiced doubt about the need for year-round downeast service. But waiting in line to disembark, on time, at the end of the line near downtown Rockland, they showed little eagerness to be on their way.
“If this was an airplane, everyone would be pushing,” said Paul Ausmann of New Jersey, a University of Maine alumnus who rode the train with former classmates. “Here . . . everyone’s happy.”
He gazed out the window at boats bobbing in the harbor.
“It looks like a postcard,” he said.