NYC27 wrote:The fastest one-seat route from NY to Millinocket is the Shoreline to Boston Switch, RI, up the P&W to the Pan Am all the way to Northern Maine Jct (via the Lower Road) and then CM&Q to Millinocket. To get the freight only portions up to passenger standards would be prohibitively expensive. And let's be honest KW&W Looks like a really boring state forest right now. I doubt it will draw well. Look at it this way, Acadia is the most visited National Park and doesn't generate trainloads of visitors (Downeast Scenic doesn't count). Lincoln and N Conway, NH to Boston look like home run rail routes compared to passenger rail to Millinocket.
We went through all this many times over on the AMTK subforum's Maine writ-large (i.e. non- current Downeaster) thread. The PAR Worcester Branch + Fitchburg Line + Stony Brook Branch + NH Main + Lowell Branch bypass for reaching the Western Route was
never at its tippy-top historical speeds faster than projected time taking the B&A inbound from Worcester to Allston, going down the Grand Junction, and reversing at North Station onto the regular full Downeaster routing. Poster 'The EGE' even detailed the math in immaculate detail. There will never ever ever be NYP-Maine service of any kind that bypasses Boston, no matter how many times uninformed and mouthy TRNE says that's a viable alternative. The math disproves it even before you get into what a mess squaring rights and operator qualifications in all that non-AMTK territory is going to be. And that's before you even get to above-and-beyond upgrades like max-build Class 5 on the B&A that hits 90 MPH on the Springfield-Palmer straightaways, or future Class 5 on the NH Main south of Wilmington to the Downeaster's benefit.
As for the P&W Groton main, if the Inland Route plan happens and upgrades the B&A to an even Class 4 from Springfield to Boston, all that Class 3 track up the I-395 corridor is probably not going to beat a New Haven-Springfield-North Station routing most oft-proposed for a NYP-Portland train. The combo of a finished Class 6 Springfield Line that hits up to 110 MPH in a couple spots and an upgraded B&A--in spite of the inevitable geologically-induced slow zones Palmer-Worcester in the hills--probably matches or beats the best you can do on the Shoreline + P&W while tapping the ridership of Hartford and Springfield instead of the meager Old Saybrook and/or New London patronage. Any NYP-Portland train is going to need the farebox recovery of those big cities to justify its existence, as well as glom as closely as possible to disguised regular (semi-express) Inland + Downeaster slots for the ridership that overchurns at all the big cities. It's the only way for NYP-Portland to usefully shield its above-and-beyond operating expenses enough to justify its above-and-beyond costs: piggyback with artful sleight-of-hand onto the existing demand. Sticking to the routings of the more frequent Inland + DE schedules also keeps you fully inside existing Amtrak rights and revenue-service territory the whole way, so crew qualifications do not add any cost until you clear the northern limits of the Downeaster.
I also think you're going to need a timed transfer @ 'Nocket with a revived VIA Rail
Atlantic to give such a route any sort of compelling hook to a wider audience. In more practical terms, if the
Atlantic does come back there's good enough impetus to study an I-95 Thruway coach connector between Brunswick (or future Augusta) and 'Nocket or Mattawamkeag connecting the Downeaster and Atlantic schedules. Train transfer probably isn't going to have the patronage to make all those extra running miles worth the cost for at least the next several decades, but seating capacity of a bus can definitely make its margins shorter-term for usefully linking the Downeaster with trips to Quebec & The Maritimes on a single ticket...provided it was promoted well enough and every trick in the book were used to streamline Customs. (Note:
Atlantic wouldn't qualify for Customs pre-clearance a la the
Adirondack,
Montrealer, or
Cascades because of local stops on both sides of the border. It would need to retain a border Customs stop a la the
Maple Leaf, but that process can certainly be lots more streamlined than it was when service last ran in 1994).
