Commuter service in suburbs (Portland, South Portland: car rental, rental, construction)

[jacjolantern]

HI everyone !

Happy Father's day to all you dad's out there ! I just have a question..does the commuter rail go all the way to Falmouth or Yarmouth?

We are deciding where to move and it's gotten down to those two towns.

Where would you pick and why.... also- are there any hospitals nearby? I have soem heavy duty health probs and I need to be near a hospital or clinic.

Thanks !

Lulu

[flycessna]

When you say Commuter service I cant help but assume you are invisioning a comuter transit system that people use in the smaller suburbs to commute to the metropolitan city.. Maine is not like that, Maine does not have a large enough city to support a suburban area like that.

Most of the towns that are located outside Portland are very small and loosly populated with no sense of town ( I do not mean that in spirit ) , its just that most of the towns will be spread out with no actual town center or support system.

However, Out of all of the towns outide of Portland, Yarmouth has a very pretty village type center..allbeit, not much is there, and it is pretty expensive..

We have the downeast rail which travells through southern maine to boston but I cannot imagine anyone using is as a local commuter rail service... there would be no need.. we do not have traffic issues like major metropolitan areas and commmute times are small and parking is affordable. Iam not sure if it goes through yarmouth.. I am inclined to say it does not.

[jacjolantern]

Thank you for your info- it really helps.

Have a great weekend !

[WhoFanMe]

Hello jacjolantern,

There is no mass transit that I'm aware of in Yarmouth and Falmouth. Portland has two hosptitals Maine Medical Center (and its satellite campuses) and Mercy Hospital.

[deerislesmile]

Maybe this would get more response on the Portland forum?

[lrfox]

Ditto what flycessna stated.

Portland is small enough that it doesn't have sprawling suburbs (one of the great things about the town in my opinion... it's hard to find that generic "suburbia" mindset). There is some suburban development in a few towns around Portland, but not much. You leave the city limits and it gets pretty rural quickly. As a result, there is VERY little mass transit in the area and that's limited to buses in Portland and South Portland (there are shuttles in certain areas too.

The Downeaster is little more than a tourist train that serves Portland to Boston (with stops in Old Orchard seasonally, Saco, Wells and New Hampshire and Suburban Boston in between). It's a 2.5 hour train ride (assuming there are no delays which there frequently are as it takes 3rd priority on its tracks to freight trains and Massachusetts local Commuter Rail) which is very long for a commuter and very few people use it to commute from say, Saco to Portland. The statistics I read show that only 20% of commuters on the Downeaster are "regular" meaning that it's not a reliable commuter source for regular travel (most railways, like Amtrak's Boston-NYC corrider have numbers in the 80% range). This is because there's no traffic issues or parking issues in Portland and it's really too far from Boston to commute more than once in a while. Also, the service is spotty and unreliable. Portland's a VERY easy place to drive and the central business area is small and compact so parking and walking to where work is is always easy. Even rush hour traffic isn't bad. I wouldn't worry about needing commuter service downtown you'll have no trouble driving there.

Now, there were plans to extend the Downeaster to Brunswick, but I don't know where they stand now. The construction of the Brunswick station has nearly come to a halt. Downeaster service is due to lose its federal funding at the end of this month and the state of Maine (Mass and NH don't fund it at all) is supposed to bear the brunt of the $8+ Million annual subsidy (few transit lines outside of Japan turn a profit and those are all privatized; Most transit requires a subsidy even if it's successful-- one reason many people are against them). As of now, Maine has not dedicated continued funding for the service and their last hope is federal stimulus funding. However, the stimulus funding is very much in doubt because the federal government is allocating most of the transportation funds for rail service to the high-speed sector. Baldacci seems to have little interest in high speed rail (he didn't attend or send a government official to a national conference on the topic last month which attracted governors from 23 states ).

If nothing changes between now and the next few months, Downeaster rail service will be halted by September 30th when state and federal funds run dry. Federal stimulus money is not geared towards low-speed rail and would require HUGE construction and updating projects to accomodate high speed rail North of Boston... something that would face strong opposition in Northern New England. Mass and NH won't pick up part of the tab because they are focused on building rail projects (SouthCoast Rail in Mass and Portsmouth and Manchester to Boston in NH) that they see as more lucrative than the Downeaster.

I'd hate to see it go because it's still a good service to have, but it needs some MAJOR work for it to be a viable commuter option.

[DreamworksSKG]

A great trip would be to spend a couple days in Boston - take the Amtrak downeaster up to Maine (portland) , take the city bus to town - find car rental place in Portland and rent a car ---and drive up the mid-coast area. to Acadia National Park - for a few days
would make for a nice trip

Of course its only a 2 1/2 hour drive from Boston area to Portland anyway so you could just rent one in boston and drive up 95

the train ride is a fun 2 hour train trip tho :-)

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