GREENVILLE, Maine — Most of the attention about trains in Maine has focused lately on Amtrak’s new train service from Portland to Boston, a wire service reports.
But a luxury passenger train with refurbished Victorian-era railroad cars train made its inaugural run over the weekend from Montreal to St. John, New Brunswick, with a two-day stopover in Greenville.
The train arrived several hours late Sunday night in Greenville because of delays at the border, track conditions that made the train slow down, and a late start.
But that didn’t stop supporters from gushing about the debut of Acadian Railway’s excursion train.
”This is a tremendous event for the Maine Highland and Greenville,” said John Holden of the Eastern Maine Development Council and the Maine Highland. ”The investment they’ve made in Greenville will have benefits many years from now.”
Randy Parten, president of the railway, said the train has been three years in the making. He plans to run excursions 14 weeks of the year, from June through September, between Montreal and Saint John with two-day stopovers in Greenville twice a week.
He told economic development officials at a reception in his honor Monday that the project involved negotiations with three trains, two countries and seven railroads.
”We’ve had a great outpouring of support from Piscataquis County and the state of Maine for starting this project; this is really quite overwhelming,” Parten said, after accepting a proclamation from Greenville officials. ”We’re going to give it our best effort.”
The train has an observation car, a domed diner car, a parlor car, three coaches, and a kitchen car where all the food preparation is conducted by an executive chef and a pastry chef.
The seats are plush and the leg room is ample. Although the train seats 450 people, only half of them are filled on trips to give passengers plenty of room.
For the inaugural run, about half the passengers were travel writers for various media outlets who were invited for a free ride. The rest, including Maine Department of Transportation Commissioner John Melrose, were paying customers.
Melrose said the train is a great way to get people into Maine without their cars. He called the ride smooth and enjoyable, and the views awe-inspiring.
“I think they’re on to something special,” he said.