Almost nothing makes me happier than riding on a train.

That said, the appropriation of $500,000 to study expanding the Downeaster passenger run to Rockland is overkill.

That half million is part of a $28 million grant to Maine to upgrade the Downeaster trains that run now between Brunswick and North Station in Boston. The Bangor Daily News reported the grant on Tuesday.

In a minute, we’ll do a little arithmetic, but first, let’s look at government subsidies. Make no mistake, the feds have subsidized and continue to subsidize transportation almost from day one.

Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution gives Congress the authority to establish “post roads” to move the mail. Congress has widened its authority to every form of transportation: waterway, highway, air, railway, bus, personal automobile. The feds always pay some of the freight.

According to the site TrainWeb, the federal government has subsidized Amtrak to the tune of $30 billion over the past 30 years, or $1 billion a year. In that time, it has spent $1.89 trillion on highway and air transportation, or about $63 billion a year.

TrainWeb, which promotes railroads, says the figures are from research by The New York Times and The Washington Post. TrainWeb has an axe to grind, The Times and Post not so much.

So, granted any new rail passenger service will be subsidized. But that doesn’t free the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority, an arm of Maine’s government, from relating cost to benefit. The NNEPRA contracts with Amtrak to operate the five daily round trips.

To be sure, the Downeaster is popular. The trains set ridership records of 57,876 passengers in July and 61,769 in August. August was its best month ever. And the trains could carry 93,000 passengers a month at 300 per train, 10 one-way trips a day.

The fare is $29 each way, comparable to the bus fare from Portland to South Station. Concord Coach gets $27 ($48 round trip) to take you from Portland to South Station. NNEPRA has said fares may rise soon by up to $6. The bus takes you to the heart of Boston or to Logan Airport (for an added $6), while the train leaves you in the North End, far from anything except TD Garden.

Now the arithmetic. To begin, the Downeaster doesn’t carry many people between Portland and Brunswick, except on days that Bowdoin College students are leaving or returning to Brunswick.

When I boarded last winter to go to a University of Maine women’s basketball game at the University of New Hampshire, I was half the payload. Five passenger cars, two passengers. It was a Wednesday morning, but the $6 we two paid for tickets didn’t even pay for diesel fuel while the train idled at the Brunswick platform.

Lots more people got on in Portland, of course. I was the only one off at Durham, next to the gym where games are played, and I was the only person getting on the up train after the game.

That’s an extreme example, but. And the.

Two problems with Brunswick-Rockland. First, population. What sort of ridership would a 57-mile trip between Brunswick and Rockland draw? The numbers are daunting.

The train would pass through the full width of Lincoln and Knox counties, which have 76,339 residents. If NNEPRA ran two trains a day and wanted, say, 100 passengers a day on the route (25 per train, and that’s a low goal), then 75% of the people in Lincoln and Knox Counties would have to ride the train one-way each year. Is that likely?

Even if you factor in Waldo County’s population of 39,853, you’re drawing from only 116,192 people, and that’s assuming folks in Belfast and Searsport would drive to Rockland to catch a train. That means, at 25 people per train two round trips a day, you’d need nearly one in three residents of all three counties riding one-way once a year.

The line also runs through Bath, but Sagadahoc Countians may find Brunswick a better fit.

The second problem is the quality of the track. In 2014, my late wife and I rode those 57 miles — remember the Maine Eastern Railroad? — for more than two hours each way, less than 30 mph.

I have a copy of the November 1941 “Official Guide of the Railways,” which shows every passenger train schedule in the U.S. and Canada. The Maine Central ran three trains a day on that line, a morning, a midday and an evening run. The morning run was the fastest at two hours, 11 minutes. The midday the slowest at two hours 45. So, the schedule hasn’t improved in 82 years.

That’s no surprise. In 1941, the Twentieth Century Limited ran from New York to Chicago in 15 hours flat. Today, the Lake Shore Limited, Amtrak’s only train between New York and Chicago, takes 22 hours and 32 minutes. So, slower and fewer trains is the norm.

If a restored Rockland branch line isn’t feasible, and I believe it isn’t, perhaps NNEPRA can focus on extending service to Lewiston, Waterville and eventually Bangor. Several trains a day to Lewiston and a couple to Waterville and Bangor. (The Brunswick-Augusta line has so deteriorated that the cost of upgrading it to passenger-train quality is prohibitive.)

It pains Bob Neal to say no to a new passenger train. After all, he spends countless hours scouring schedules for trips he never takes. Last month, it was Iowa, this month New Orleans. Neal can be reached at bobneal@myfairpoint.net.

Copy the Story Link