Add your voice: MDOT considering Auburn-Portland commuter bus routes

| In My Opinion – Carl Wilcox |

Maine DOT has been studying the return of commuter rail from Lewiston/Auburn to Portland. There are two different options. One would run on the now-CSX tracks, formerly Pan Am, formerly Maine Central. The other would run on CSX tracks to Danville Junction and then on the Grand Trunk line down to Yarmouth, where it would join the CSX tracks that the Downeaster runs on to the Portland Transportation Center. There would be stops at the Lewiston train station behind CMMC, at the Auburn Turnpike Exit 75, at Pineland on either route, Morse Road or Penney Road in New Gloucester or Allen Road in West Pownal, Yarmouth and on to the Portland Transportation Center.

After much study, it has been determined that the rail ridership would be insufficient to secure federal grants. Thus, DOT is proposing a bus option with a number of runs per day. The concept is for four buses that would continually run, providing one departure each way each hour.

There are three proposed routes from the downtown Auburn Transportation Center (near Great Falls Plaza):

1. Down the Maine Turnpike with a stop in Gray and then on to the Portland Transportation Center.
2. Down Route 100, unknown if there would be stop in New Gloucester, on to Gray and then the Portland Transportation Center.
3. Down Route 136 along the Androscoggin River, to I-295 in Freeport, a stop at Exit 15 in Yarmouth and then on to the Portland Transportation Center.

DOT will soon be taking your public comments after the report is made final and published. Once the draft study is ready, perhaps by the end of this week, it will be posted on the MDOT website at this link: https://www.maine.gov/mdot/ofps/larailplan/ Please comment. In my opinion, route 3 should not be selected. Freeport and Yarmouth already have the Metro Breez system with many trips per day from Brunswick to the PTC. I do not think there will be a meaningful number of riders picked up in Durham.

In my opinion, the best bus route is None of the Above, but down Route 100 to Route 231 through the Lower Village and on to Pineland with stops between Auburn and Pineland as demand dictates. A Park and Ride at the former New Gloucester town garage location in the Upper Village would be nice. From Pineland the bus could go on to North Yarmouth and Cumberland and then on to Falmouth I-295 to downtown Portland, not the Portland Transportation Center. I drove for the Metro several years ago. The Breez was relatively well used by Brunswick and Yarmouth residents commuting into and out of downtown Portland. It went down Congress Street and ended at the PTC. Nearly everyone got off along Congress Street. Generally, one person or no one stayed on to go to the PTC.

Please make your voice heard to support commuter bus transit through New Gloucester. Route 231 has enough traffic. If the commuter bus becomes popular, that would greatly increase the scoring for the possibility that the federal government would fund the return of commuter rail between the two cities that ended circa late 1950s.

Carl Wilcox
New Gloucester

Editor’s note: You can see L/A-Portland commuter bus study presentation slides and maps at this link and hear discussion of the bus routes, starting around minute 7:15 of the MDOT meeting video at this link.

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