Amtrak Introduces Discover Maine Rail Pass

[BlackDiamond]

A new rail pass introduced for the Amtrak Downeaster.
Discover Maine Rail Pass

It allows travel of up to 10 trips in a 7 day period between any 2 stops on Maine (Wells through Brunswick) for only $19.
Might be useful for rail fans on vacation in Maine.
I assume NNERPA is sponsoring this.

 

[Fenway]

A new rail pass introduced for the Amtrak Downeaster.
Discover Maine Rail Pass

It allows travel of up to 10 trips in a 7 day period between any 2 stops on Maine (Wells through Brunswick) for only $19.
Might be useful for rail fans on vacation in Maine.
I assume NNERPA is sponsoring this.

Great deal for people who might want to hit OOB or Freeport from Portland.

I am hearing that NNERPA is looking very hard at adding an early morning departure from Boston and a late evening from Portland but they would need to hire crews based in Boston to make it work as getting equipment is not an issue. The payoff is getting daytrippers from Boston to Maine and back which would be viable.

 

[west point]

I am hearing that NNERPA is looking very hard at adding an early morning departure from Boston and a late evening from Portland but they would need to hire crews based in Boston to make it work as getting equipment is not an issue. The payoff is getting daytrippers from Boston to Maine and back which would be viable.

"getting equipment is not an issue" . As a long distance supporter it is for me and many of out LD supporters. Why can Amtrak find equipment for this service but not have any for LD trains? It is about time someone holds someone at Amtrak headquarters to explain this obvious non support for LD trains. No excuse!!

 

[jis]

"getting equipment is not an issue" . As a long distance supporter it is for me and many of out LD supporters. Why can Amtrak find equipment for this service but not have any for LD trains? It is about time someone holds someone at Amtrak headquarters to explain this obvious non support for LD trains. No excuse!!

This is a thread about Maine and not a place to argue about LD trains no matter how legitimate the argument may be. Besides do they even require any additional equipment for this? Is it possible that they can pull this off by rearranging the schedules a bit with the equipment they already have?

 

[MARC Rider]

"getting equipment is not an issue" . As a long distance supporter it is for me and many of out LD supporters. Why can Amtrak find equipment for this service but not have any for LD trains? It is about time someone holds someone at Amtrak headquarters to explain this obvious non support for LD trains. No excuse!!

The total travel time between Boston and Brunswick is 3 hours 20 minutes, and even if the trains run a bit late at times, they aren't dealing with 4 or more hour delays as is common with the long-distance service. Thus, a single trainset can reliably do multiple round trips in a day, and it is quite possible that the existing fleet is sufficient to allow adding more departures. This is in contrast to a long-distance train that has a 20-40 hour run and commonly arrives hours behind schedule at the terminating station. Such trains may need 3-6 trainsets to run one daily train on the route, which means adding frequencies to a long-distance route would involve acquiring 3-6 new trainsets.

And don't forget that the Downeaster is subsidized by the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority, aka the taxpayers of Maine, who are essentially paying Amtrak to run the service, so if they want more frequencies, they can get them.