(The following article by Lynn Walters was posted on the Boston Globe website on February 10.)
BOSTON — A proposal to add a fifth Downeaster train from Boston to Maine has prompted a debate on the New Hampshire Seacoast about the future of public transportation in a state where less than 1 percent of the population uses buses or trains to commute.
Supporters of the train service and its increasing ridership are urging New Hampshire to earmark $1.2 million in federal transportation funds for upgrades before putting another train on the already busy tracks. The money would pay for improvements that would allow freight and passenger trains using the tracks to pass each other safely. The Downeaster is New Hampshire’s only commuter rail service, with stops at Dover, Durham, and Exeter.
The main voice opposing the project is Jim Jalbert, owner of C&J Trailways, which provides bus service between the Seacoast and Boston. It’s not the added competition he objects to, Jalbert said, but wasting money that would be better spent elsewhere.
“If the train is already losing 50 cents on the dollar, a fifth train probably makes it more difficult to survive in the marketplace,” Jalbert said.
Both sides of the debate have the same goal: getting more commuters off the roads in New Hampshire. But each wants to take different roads to get there. The state transportation committee is scheduled to vote on the $1.2 million for track improvements in mid-March. If approved, the governor and Executive Council also have to sign off on it.
The Downeaster’s ridership is helping reduce road congestion in the Granite State, supporters say. New Hampshire ridership in 2003 totaled 83,784, accounting for more than one-third of the 250,000 passengers.
Durham is an increasingly popular stop, with 21,241 passengers riding the Durham-Boston route from July 2003 to June 2004, up from 9,144 riders in 2002-2003, according to the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority, which oversees Downeaster train service with Amtrak. In October, the last audited month available, Durham supplied 4,300 passengers.
NNEPRA executive director John Englert said that a fifth round trip would increase service by 25 percent and allow two trains to leave Boston in the peak evening rush hours. Englert said the Downeaster covers about 50 percent of its own costs, compared with a national average of 38 percent for similar railways.
“There’s not a single transportation mode out there that isn’t subsidized in some form,” Englert said.
The debate underscores larger issues as the state begins updating its 10-year transportation plan. How important is mass transit in this mostly rural, but growing state? And, where should transit money come from? The state constitution restricts use of highway gasoline tax revenue to road projects.
Since the Downeaster began in 2001, Maine has provided the most funding, including $3.5 million in 2005. Maine has asked New Hampshire to contribute $1.2 million of its federal congestion mitigation money to make way for the fifth train. While New Hampshire considers that request, Maine officials have proposed a surcharge on New Hampshire riders in what some believe is a not-so-subtle effort to persuade officials to approve the money.
That could be a hard sell in a state where the highway is the only way for many people. According to 2000 US Bureau of Transportation statistics, 83.3 percent of New Hampshire commuters drove solo, well above the national average of 75.7 percent. More New Hampshire commuters walked to work, at 2.3 percent, than rode public transportation, at 0.6 percent. Nationally, an average 2.6 percent walked to work while 4.7 percent took public transportation.
Car pools declined 10.2 percent between 1990 and 2000, according to the New Hampshire Economic and Labor Market Information Bureau.
New Hampshire faces “a balancing act trying to fund all various forms of transportation,” said state Department of Transportation spokesman Bill Boynton. “The ultimate challenge is how to get that single occupant driver to either share or get out of the vehicle.”
Part of New Hampshire’s love affair with the car stems from how far people have to drive to get to work.
“In comparison, Vermont doesn’t have thousands of motorists driving south to the border for employment. We do,” Boynton said.
Stephen Pesci, University of New Hampshire Campus Planning special projects manager, said it’s not a question of train versus bus, but more of everything. UNH embraces mass transit and is one of the few US universities with rail service into the heart of campus, said Pesci, who is a former Strafford Regional Planning Commission member.
“The train is really important for economic development and is an essential asset for UNH,” Pesci said. “We need more rail and bus service. Unfortunately, transit always gets the crumbs in this country, and we don’t have enough crumbs to fight over.”
Bob Landman, chairman of the Seacoast Metropolitan Planning Organization, said his group unanimously supports Downeaster improvements.
“I don’t understand what the difficulty is,” Landman said. “The state of Maine and the federal government have been doing all the funding. I wish people would wake up and smell the diesel fuel because it works.”
In its 10-year plan, the state will consider various forms of public transportation. Currently, New Hampshire has local transit systems in about 10 areas. Aside from the Downeaster, the only other train is a New York to Northern Vermont line with one stop in Claremont.
In the end, experts say, public transportation usually involves subsidies, which makes its future murky in tax-adverse New Hampshire.
“Does the taxpayer want to subsidize public transportation?” Boynton said. “That’s the fundamental question.”