New Train?

Wall Street Journal

Fair Use:

About 3.3 million people poured through borders into Maine by car, bus, train or on foot 2019, federal data show. But the number plunged 79% to about 700,000 last year, and Canadian border data also show significant drops in incoming travel. Maine’s Office of Tourism estimates Canadian visitation tumbled by about 80% on the year, costing the state about $1 billion

HUH?????

Mr. Norman, plenty of trains cross into Maine from Canada. But you don't need a ticket to ride them.

If by "border" the post includes the border between NH and ME, Amtrak's Downeaster brought hundreds of people into Maine every day during 2019.

According to the US DOT, which gets its data from Customs and Border Protection,
https://explore.dot.gov/views/BorderCro ... y&:embed=y, around 2,300 "train passengers" crossed from Canada into Maine in 2020, which seems to be about par for the course the last few years. In 2020 there were a few more than in the 2019 at Van Buren and Vanceboro, and fewer at Calais and Jackman, but no particular overall change, suggesting that these aren't tourists.

Could CBP be counting the crews as passengers? A railroad wouldn't, but the people checking passports might, and there's no category of "train crews." The number of trains at those border crossings is listed, and it's roughly -- but not exactly -- half the number of people listed as passengers.

Whatever the tiny numbers mean, the WSJ probably sent an intern or new reporter to find out how many people come from Canada into Maine every year, and that person got all the land border crossings and added them up -- never mind that more people usually arrive by ferry or yacht and by airplane than by train.

There were a few foliage excursions from Montreal into Maine in the late 1990s, both on the old CP and the old Grand Trunk. But sadly, Mr. Norman, it doesn't look like we'll be passing through Bethel or Brownsville in a Voiture Parc any time soon. Sam Martland

The nuance is in the way the article is written. It's referring to domestic borders AND the Canadian border separately. A period would have made that clearer than a comma. Re-quoted, emphasis/spacing mine.

Wall Street Journal

About 3.3 million people poured through borders into Maine by car, bus, train or on foot 2019, federal data show. But the number plunged 79% to about 700,000 last year,
and
Canadian border data also show significant drops in incoming travel. Maine’s Office of Tourism estimates Canadian visitation tumbled by about 80% on the year, costing the state about $1 billion

Arborwayfan wrote: ↑Mon Mar 15, 2021 8:30 pm Whatever the tiny numbers mean, the WSJ probably sent an intern or new reporter to find out how many people come from Canada into Maine every year, and that person got all the land border crossings and added them up -- never mind that more people usually arrive by ferry or yacht and by airplane than by train.

I'd give the reporter the benefit of the doubt. I mean, if the official government data indicated that people were arriving in Maine by rail, I'd probably assume that meant there was a passenger train crossing the border. Especially if I spent a decent amount of time in New York City, a place that does have daily rail service to Canada in normal times.

I just meant that whoever did the research either didn't notice, or didn't care, that the train and foot numbers are quite small, not they they should have figured out that it wasn't a passenger train from Canada. I guess I shouldn't have sounded critical: the big list of modes is accurate and sounds nice.