by gokeefe
Mr. Cowford,
Most of the buses are short distance shuttles that pull workers in from Parking areas in the general vicinity of Bath, such as Woolwich or Cook's Corner, since not everyone can park downtown. Many of these riders already car pool together just to get to an outer parking lot and then get shuttled in. Commuter rail can, for some, eliminate two legs of the trip, the car pool, and the shuttle in, because the train station is across the street from the yard. There could even be a stop for those who work at Harding's as it is located directly on the rail line as well.
Keep in mind the driving conditions in the winter, are absolutely horrible on many days. Workers often lose leave time, either sick days or vacation time on snow days when the risk of wrecking the family car just isn't worth it. In many ways rail in this case is the better option because the roads are not as efficient both in terms of their end points and in terms of the road conditions during the usual hours of travel to BIW.
I can't emphasize enough how much the road conditions in the winter make this service suceeding a real possibility. I had to commute for a short period in the late fall and winter from Winthrop to Freeport, yes, I was working for L.L. Bean, you would be amazed by how bad the conditions could be at times even on I-295. There are plenty of people who work for BIW who live in that area and along the Rockland Branch who would pay a small fare or purchase a monthly pass, for many of them it might be less then or equal to the cost of driving on their own. The car pools, while competitive cost wise, still involve at least 'one of the guys' driving each day when they are all tired and all of the necessary headaches of coordination.
My understanding of the arrangement between MDOT and M&E is that they operate the line and receive all revenues from the freight traffic on the line. I do not know the exact nature of the contractual arrangment, but it has been my impression all along that the state is responsible for improvements of a capital nature and ME takes care of the day to day maintenance. I made an error in my previous post that might give the impression that ME doesn't pay for maintenance at all. It can be very difficult for me at times to separate what the state is paying for on this branch and what is the responsbility of the operator. Given that the state clearly is assuming at least the capital costs the incremental maintenance seems to me to be proportionally very small.
Most of the buses are short distance shuttles that pull workers in from Parking areas in the general vicinity of Bath, such as Woolwich or Cook's Corner, since not everyone can park downtown. Many of these riders already car pool together just to get to an outer parking lot and then get shuttled in. Commuter rail can, for some, eliminate two legs of the trip, the car pool, and the shuttle in, because the train station is across the street from the yard. There could even be a stop for those who work at Harding's as it is located directly on the rail line as well.
Keep in mind the driving conditions in the winter, are absolutely horrible on many days. Workers often lose leave time, either sick days or vacation time on snow days when the risk of wrecking the family car just isn't worth it. In many ways rail in this case is the better option because the roads are not as efficient both in terms of their end points and in terms of the road conditions during the usual hours of travel to BIW.
I can't emphasize enough how much the road conditions in the winter make this service suceeding a real possibility. I had to commute for a short period in the late fall and winter from Winthrop to Freeport, yes, I was working for L.L. Bean, you would be amazed by how bad the conditions could be at times even on I-295. There are plenty of people who work for BIW who live in that area and along the Rockland Branch who would pay a small fare or purchase a monthly pass, for many of them it might be less then or equal to the cost of driving on their own. The car pools, while competitive cost wise, still involve at least 'one of the guys' driving each day when they are all tired and all of the necessary headaches of coordination.
My understanding of the arrangement between MDOT and M&E is that they operate the line and receive all revenues from the freight traffic on the line. I do not know the exact nature of the contractual arrangment, but it has been my impression all along that the state is responsible for improvements of a capital nature and ME takes care of the day to day maintenance. I made an error in my previous post that might give the impression that ME doesn't pay for maintenance at all. It can be very difficult for me at times to separate what the state is paying for on this branch and what is the responsbility of the operator. Given that the state clearly is assuming at least the capital costs the incremental maintenance seems to me to be proportionally very small.
gokeefe
