Talk:Downeaster (train)

Untitled

I'm pretty sure that "downeaster" also refers to a type of ship, but I do not yet have a good source for it. I've heard it referred to as such in the Billy Joel song Downeaster Alexa, and a Google search yields a few ships (such as the Franconia and the Indiana) that are supposedly of that style. When I get more info, I'll put it up at Downeaster (ship). --zandperl 23:41, 11 July 2005 (UTC)

article title

Perhaps it would be a good idea to change the title of the article to "Amtrak Downeaster" or "Downeaster passenger train" or something along those lines. The word "downeaster" does have other meanings, especially before December 2001.

—BMRR 20:01, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

While, yes, It does have other meanings, I don't think any of those meanings have articles of their own. We could re name this and make downeaster a diambig page, that is, if you could provide a list of links to populate that page with. --KPWM_Spotter 21:23, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

I agree that we should change the page name to "Amtrak Downeaster", in my experience, whenever searching for the downeaster on google news or YouTube I always type Amtrak Downeaster to find what I'm looking for. Plus the website is [amtrakdowneaster.com] and the logo says "Amtrak Downeaster". I just think it sounds better, which is subjective and opinionated. --Bubblecuffer (talk) 04:04, 6 November 2012 (UTC)

Standard procedure on Wikipedia is Name (train). If there is any move, it should be to Downeaster (train). Pi.1415926535 (talk) 04:14, 6 November 2012 (UTC)

NNEPRA

The article should include some information about NNEPRA—especially the fact that the Downeaster is funded, managed, and promoted primarily by NNEPRA, not Amtrak.

Some history would be nice too, e.g. the 12+ years that various groups spent advocating for the service and fighting with Guilford to make it happen. — Preceding unsigned comment added by BMRR (talk • contribs) 14:46, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

Feel free to add a remark in those regards, just make sure to provide a good source/reference. Personally, I've never heard of the NNEPRA, and Wiki doesn't have an article on them, but if it's something that is worthy of being added, go ahead. --KPWM_Spotter 19:11, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

"NNEPRA" stands for Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority. It is the government agency, overseen and funded by the Maine Department of Transportation, that coordinates passenger rail services in Maine—particularly the Downeaster. Amtrak is simply the contractor chosen by NNEPRA to operate the Downeaster.

—BMRR 00:36, 19 September 2006 (UTC) (sorry I forgot to sign my first comment re: NNEPRA)

I don't believe NNEPRA is a governmental agency, strictly speaking, although it does of course have very close ties to the Maine DOT. --Wspencer11 (talk to me...) 20:41, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

Station stop section

Wouldn't it make more sense to have the list of stops link to the towns themselves rather than to the Amtrak stations? There's no earthly reason for there to be an article on the train platform in Exeter, for example, but there's a perfectly good article on the town already. --Wspencer11 (talk to me...) 20:45, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

I've now changed these. --Wspencer11 (talk to me...) 13:47, 6 November 2006 (UTC)

Expansion to Bangor (or even into Canada)?

If the service to Portland becomes successful enough to make a profit (or at least to break even), are there any thoughts of expanding the service to Bangor or beyond—or even into Canada? 66.234.220.195 (talk) 21:16, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

I doubt that it will ever make a profit. I also doubt that it will ever break even, although it might eventually come closer to breaking even than it does right now. Profit (or lack thereof) is not a particularly useful measure of the success of a public transportation system.

With that in mind, MaineDOT, NNEPRA, and Amtrak, are all planning on extending the Downeaster from Portland to Brunswick in the not-too-distant future. MDOT and the Gov's office also want to see some kind of passenger rail service from Portland to Lewiston-Auburn, and if that works out, the next step would be Augusta, and then Bangor.

I haven't heard anything about extending the Downeaster to Canada. There has been talk of creating a passenger rail link from Maine to Montreal, but it would most likely be unrelated to the Downeaster.

—BMRR (talk) 22:17, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

Service after 2009?

Where will the funding for the service come from in 2009 and beyond? It's my understanding that the money simply isn't there, unless Maine expands its funding considerably; Massachusetts and New Hampshire contribute nothing to it, and there is very little political support in New Hampshire for subsidizing the service. 76.21.8.213 (talk) 07:35, 24 August 2008 (UTC)

Expanding and Improving the article

Would anyone be interested in helping me improve and expand the article to potentially create a Good Article see grades Wikipedia:Quality_scale#Grades? I have been working on the intro, but I think the history could be vastly expanded to included the efforts of Trainriders Northeast which started in 1989. Any other ideas? Maybe so new photos, formatting? --Bubblecuffer (talk) 04:13, 6 November 2012 (UTC) See also: WP:GA WP:MOS

I have the article watchlisted and plan to lengthen it substantially in the near term. After the Black Hawk, it'll be my next map. Pi.1415926535 (talk) 04:19, 6 November 2012 (UTC)

10-4, I can help write some sections and take some pictures since the Downeaster runs through my town. --Bubblecuffer (talk) 04:22, 6 November 2012 (UTC)

More pictures would be great, especially if you're in close proximity to any stations. All of them have pictures, but all except Wells and Saco badly need better and more pictures. Pi.1415926535 (talk) 05:32, 6 November 2012 (UTC)

I think the history and expansion sections should mention more about Trainriders Northeast, they have been more behind the history and expansion of this train than anyone else. They were the ones who pushed to have NNEPRA found by the state of Maine, and in the TrainridersNE article it says under history "see main article: Downeaster" versus the other way around. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bubblecuffer (talk • contribs) 20:20, 8 November 2012 (UTC)

I can't say I know particularly much about TRNE and NNERPA, but definitely go with an article about them. I'll be more useful writing about the Downeaster itself - I work well with the technicals and the historicals. Once I have the Downeaster map, making a TRNE goal map in SVG format (for easier modification) won't be too difficult. Pi.1415926535 (talk) 00:08, 9 November 2012 (UTC)

I expanded the history greatly and plan on doing the same for the TNE page tomorrow. I could only find that one source, I will search for old newspaper articles on it, notably the failed negotiations between Amtrak and Guilford. Some people thought they would never be solved and that the train would never actually run. --Bubblecuffer (talk) 02:43, 10 November 2012 (UTC)

Portland to Brunswick; Still ex-B&M?

Does the new segment between Portland and Brunswick still run on former Boston and Maine Railroad tracks, or is that the Maine Central Railroad? -------User:DanTD (talk) 13:35, 12 November 2012 (UTC)

1898 map shows it as B&M. Pi.1415926535 (talk) 16:23, 12 November 2012 (UTC)

I believe it's part of the MEC "low route", but now they're all under the same umbrella of PAR now. MaineDOT now owns the former SL&A tracks from Portland to Aubrun. --Bubblecuffer (talk) 21:54, 23 November 2012 (UTC)

Christmas presents included Rail Lines of Northern New England. The Brunswick extension runs on the former Kennebec and Portland Railroad, which was built in 1847-1849. It was leased by the MEC in 1871 and became part of it in 1874. It was never part of the B&M proper - Guilford bought it in 1981 - but it was shown on B&M maps as a connecting service. Pi.1415926535 (talk) 19:05, 25 December 2012 (UTC)

Ridership & Finances vs. Ridership, Finances

I was thinking of combining the two sections into one, because these two statistics are often included together and correlated. I am waiting for more in-depth FY info to be published, although I have been able to get updated ridership stats via email correspondence. Any thoughts? --Bubblecuffer (talk) 02:54, 12 February 2013 (UTC)

Sounds like a solid plan. Pi.1415926535 (talk) 03:00, 12 February 2013 (UTC)

Requested move 1 September 2016

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: moved. (non-admin closure) Regards, Krishna Chaitanya Velaga (talk • mail) 13:54, 7 September 2016 (UTC)

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Downeaster → Downeaster (train) – This doesn't appear to be the primary topic of the term "Downeaster". The page views are a little hard to parse as most other "Downeaster" topics are covered at articles with alternate names (Down Easter (ship), Down East, Bay Breeze, etc.) but it doesn't look like the Amtrak train is "much more likely than any other topic, and more likely than all the other topics combined" to be the topic sought. On Google Books, Downeaster train returns fewer hits than Downeaster Maine and Downeaster ship. Downeaster should point to the dab page Down Easter. Cúchullain ^t/c 16:15, 1 September 2016 (UTC)

• Support per nom. Downeaster should direct to Down Easter. —  AjaxSmack  20:06, 1 September 2016 (UTC)
• Support. I agree with the reasoning given. 331dot (talk) 20:49, 1 September 2016 (UTC)
• Support - this page would, I assume be turned into a disambiguation page? - DavidWBrooks (talk) 20:25, 5 September 2016 (UTC)

Downeaster could just redirect to the already existing dab page at Down Easter.--Cúchullain ^t/c 13:33, 6 September 2016 (UTC)

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The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Downeaster redirect

After the above page move, Downeaster was redirected to this article. But it would be better to redirect it to the disambiguation page Down Easter - and, in fact, I'm about to do that. - DavidWBrooks (talk) 16:06, 7 September 2016 (UTC)

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Layover facility

I was thinking of moving the coverage of the layover facility from "Plans" to "History", and consolidating it into a couple sentences. I realize that it was controversial and received plenty of coverage, but the twists and turns probably aren't all that important in the long run. Mackensen (talk) 02:07, 3 May 2017 (UTC)

I agree with moving sections; however, I would object to it being condensed too much. The political ramifications of the controversy appear likely to have long-term impacts on the future of the service. The section is all of 304 words currently; I don't think 200 to 250 words would be undue weight. Pi.1415926535 (talk) 02:30, 3 May 2017 (UTC)

I concur with Pi; don't mind a move but I don't think too much should be removed. The leader of the state stating the facility was a bad idea and efforts to stop it are important to the history of the service. 331dot (talk) 08:22, 3 May 2017 (UTC)

I suspect the Downeaster will survive longer than LePage does, but point taken. I'll try my hand at something and feel free to revert me. Mackensen (talk) 10:21, 3 May 2017 (UTC)

I've made the change; it comes in at ~136 words but I think covers the important ground: where it is, why it was built, when it was built, who opposed it. Mackensen (talk) 12:49, 3 May 2017 (UTC)

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2018 passenger numbers

I added a source stating that NNEPRA states they had 534,000 passengers in 2018, which was a record, but statistics given here for other years are higher. Is this due to fiscal years vs. calendar year? Or some other reason? 331dot (talk) 11:03, 21 April 2019 (UTC)

Route Map

An extension proposal is planned for the Downeaster to serve Rockland. The line's route map should show the proposed extension(s) of the line. 98.115.168.68 (talk) 17:09, 6 February 2023 (UTC)

References

2x1, 2x2

The seating formats 2x1 and 2x2 are used in the article but never defined. Their meaning may be obvious to a railfan, but not to an typical reader. As far as I can tell, they mean respectively, in each row of seating there are "two forward-facing seats on one side of the (off-center) aisle and one on the other side" and "two forward-facing seats on each side of the (centered) aisle." I think this needs some kind of clarification or definition or link to a place where they're defined because they are not commonly used terms and their meanings are not intuitively obvious. 69.161.125.36 (talk) 16:13, 18 March 2023 (UTC)