To the editor:
Thank you for Steve Cartwright’s article about public transit in midcoast Maine [WWF August 2005].
I also feel that there is a great potential for public transit in the midcoast. Instead of just having train rides for special events, I look forward to convenient, consistent, coordinated, clean, reasonably priced public transit with user friendly schedule information serving the mid-coast area.
One idea would be to merge school bus systems into a midcoast transport system and apply logistics so various bus systems would be coordinated with train service. For example, it would be nice to get on a bus in New Harbor to the Newcastle train station to catch a train to Cook’s Corner, downtown Brunswick, downtown Portland and the Maine Mall or to Rockland. At these major stops, there could be lockers to check purchases and belongings while doing other things. And, each major stop needs to have coordinated bus service(s) to surrounding areas.
Examples include: Thomaston to St. George Peninsula to Port Clyde to Rockland, Brunswick to South Harpswell to Baileys Island to Cook’s Corner; Bath to Popham Beach, Newcastle around Lake Damariscotta and down to Christmas Cove to Pemaquid Point to New Harbor to Round Pond up Biscay Road and/or on to Waldoboro, Rockland to Camden to Belfast and Searsport, Wiscasset to Edgecomb to Boothbay Harbor to Newcastle. All of these routes should have reverse routes, too. The last train and coordinated buses need to leave Portland after evening events finish.
Done right, it could work quite nicely to provide alternatives to driving for local residents as well as visitors. Of course, the best advertisement would be trains whizzing by on tracks parallel to Route 1, especially in congested areas. And, if transit times can become less than driving time — especially to Boston — then the other advantages of using public transit could turn any reasonable person to realizing that public transit is a better way to go.
Jack Boak
Bremen