Downeaster Thanksgiving Weekend

For the Thanksgiving Weekend, the Downeasters had six cars on one set and five on the other. While I did not see any sell-outs shown on the Amtrak reservation page, the six car set was reported to be sold out on #692 on Saturday by the time they reached Haverhill. A station host at Dover reported that Saturday appeared to have been the busiest day ever at Dover, since the station host program began several years ago. Since C&J Trailways moved out, there is a handful of dedicated station hosts that open the station 30 minutes before train time, except for the midnight train. The City of Dover, which owns the station, is still seeking a permanent operator.

With the Amtrak emphasis on extra equipment on the NE Corridor for Thanksgiving weekend, NNEPRA was fortunate to get the extra cars for the DE.

Dick

I was one of about 80 people to board 684 out of Durham last Wednesday. And about 40 students came back to campus on 693 on Sunday. My mom calls it the "UNH Express."

It's always good to get some tidbits on the DE "action" at UNH, thanks to Mr. Finch.
I don't think this has been posted before. In FY 2007 Durham-UNH handled 50,367
passengers. In FY 2008 Durham-UNH handled 66,173, about a 30% increase. Great!

Dick

It is amazing how the Durham stop has gone from its humble, weekends-only beginnings to being one of the most heavily used stops on the line. Not that I'm at all surprised, but some folks didn't think it would amount to much. (The same folks who thought the DE would only last a year or two, I suppose.)

Last time I took the DE, we spent at least 5 minutes stopped at Durham because so many people were getting on there. Most were UNH students but there were a lot of regular townsfolk, too.

Dick H wrote:For the Thanksgiving Weekend, the Downeasters had six cars on one set and five on the other. While I did not see any sell-outs shown on the Amtrak reservation page, the six car set was reported to be sold out on #692 on Saturday by the time they reached Haverhill. A station host at Dover reported that Saturday appeared to have been the busiest day ever at Dover, since the station host program began several years ago. Since C&J Trailways moved out, there is a handful of dedicated station hosts that open the station 30 minutes before train time, except for the midnight train. The City of Dover, which owns the station, is still seeking a permanent operator.

With the Amtrak emphasis on extra equipment on the NE Corridor for Thanksgiving weekend, NNEPRA was fortunate to get the extra cars for the DE.

Dick

Normally, doesn't Amtrak station 2-3 extra cars in Portland (in addition to the third cabbage and a P42) as backups for the Downeaster fleet? Perhaps the extra cars running for the Thanksgiving weekend were "found" by just pressing everything normally assigned to the service out onto the road?

MEC407 wrote:It is amazing how the Durham stop has gone from its humble, weekends-only beginnings to being one of the most heavily used stops on the line. Not that I'm at all surprised, but some folks didn't think it would amount to much. (The same folks who thought the DE would only last a year or two, I suppose.)

Last time I took the DE, we spent at least 5 minutes stopped at Durham because so many people were getting on there. Most were UNH students but there were a lot of regular townsfolk, too.

I have observed a similar phenomenon on Amtrak's Michigan service as both Kalamazoo (home of Western Michigan U and Kalamazoo College) and East Lansing (Home of the Spartans - Go Green!) generate way more weekend ridership than do the cities of Battle Creek or Hammond-Whiting.

MEC407 wrote:It is amazing how the Durham stop has gone from its humble, weekends-only beginnings to being one of the most heavily used stops on the line. Not that I'm at all surprised, but some folks didn't think it would amount to much. (The same folks who thought the DE would only last a year or two, I suppose.)

Last time I took the DE, we spent at least 5 minutes stopped at Durham because so many people were getting on there. Most were UNH students but there were a lot of regular townsfolk, too.

Not surprising at all considering the ease with which one can detrain and make their way to the Whitt for men's and women's hockey games. I shall be doing just that this Friday night to see the #7 Wildcat women take on the #10 Harvard Crimson.

That sounds great. Thanks for the update, Dick.