BRUNSWICK (NEWS CENTER Maine) — The Amtrak Downeaster train service marked a milestone on Monday. The Downeaster has added two more round trips between Brunswick and Boston each weekday.
The executive director of the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority, which manages the train service, said this completes the original growth plan that was envisioned in 2004, years before was added to the route.
The round trip trains all run from Brunswick, through Freeport and Portland to Boston, and back. The expansion brings the weekday total to five round trips, with four on weekends.
Patricia Quinn of NNEPRA said the new schedule includes an early morning train that leaves Brunswick at 4 a.m. and gets to Boston before 8 a.m., which she says should help business travelers. It also extends a train that leaves Boston at 9 a.m., which used to only reach Portland. Now that train arrives in Freeport and Brunswick around noon time.
Quinn says they hope that train will make one-day shopping trips to Freeport practical for people in Boston, New Hampshire and even southernmost Maine.
“So this really gives people the opportunity to get here at noon time then stay until a later train, which is 5:45 to 6:00, and have a good chunk of time during the day to stay here, grab some lunch do some shopping have a light dinner and then head home,” Quinn said.
At the Brunswick Inn, located within walking distance of the train station, manager Wendy Flynn said they already have a number of guests who arrive by train. She said she believes more frequent trains will make it easier for more people to travel to Brunswick without a car.
For passengers, having more daily round trips will make travel easier.
"Absolutely, it will be useful for me," said Deb Novak, headed to Boston on Monday to visit family. "We do enjoy going down to Boston a lot."
Until now, the Downeaster was limited to three round trips per day, so as not to interfere with other rail traffic on the single track between Brunswick and Portland.
But Quinn says they have added another rail siding near Yarmouth so two trains can pass each other. That, plus a new agreement with the company that owns the track, will make space for the additional found trips.
For more information go to amtrak.com.