Tuesday and Thursday: Portland's streets and the Downeaster's future

[Myles G. Smith]

Hey folks,

Meetings coming up this week. Please prioritize at least the Thursday meeting on Portland's transportation future. We need everyone to set this in the right direction!

On Thursday, we'll be pushing for Portland to prioritize walking, biking, and transit, and deprioritizing the speed of cars through the city. By the time 2040 comes around, we should be the best small city to walk around in America - and not just on the peninsula! The meeting will be at the Portland downtown library from 4-6pm. You can come and go anytime, it is open-house format. More info here.

Also, today, there will be an open house about the future of the Downeaster. We have supported all of these service improvements, except the location selected for the Portland train station. NNEPRA/Downeaster wants to put the station in an industrial area at the far south end of St. John Street, we've said repeatedly that Maine Health and the city and county officials need to get aligned to put the station at the site of Union Station Plaza, where it would be accessible to bus service and possibly a future BRT service line.

See you there,

Myles

Chair, PBPAC

[Scsmedia]

I attended this meeting on Tuesday afternoon and was disappointed that I was the only PBPAC member at the meeting.

It was a hybrid format with an boards to review and respond to and then a presentation by Patricia Quinn on the Downeaster and the plan to move the station to St John Street.  (She mischaracterized the description of where the 2nd site would be and MaineHealth's plans for the property -- the facts being MaineHealth has no plan, but they are for now prohibited from building hospital facilities on the site.)  She also brought up the canard that the Jail would not allow the station on there property.  If she was that concerned, she should have found someone to run against the sheriff who supports the site.

She noted that the project will cost $60 million for a small station, track improvements and a 200 space parking lot.

Surprisingly, there was some push back in the questions from the group.

Several concerns presented were her statement that moving the station would gentrify the neighborhood (a good thing in her view, bad in the view of two people).  I think that moving the station will do nothing to improve or change the neighborhood.

The father of the owner of one of the properties at site three (NNEPRA's prefered location) stated that the owner is opposed to selling the property they will need to build the station.  MaineHealth also opposes selling their property.

I raised several concerns, specifically that their consultant, VHB's documents show a 21,000 per year increase in ridership.  Patricia Quinn stated that it would be 60,000.  When I challenged that she gave a answer that different groups have different conclusions (thus she is using the highest number).

She touted the 15 minute time savings indicating that it was a significant point in people making a decision to use the train.  

Others asked about the parking.  She said 200 space were more than sufficient as this station is so much closer to downtown Portland (it is not).  She claimed that the present parking lot is so full due to Concord Trailways passengers going to Logan, etc.

My take on this is the $60 million pricetag is too high and the cost benefit is too low (I also think it is being overblown).  I do not support moving the station from its current location.

Steven Scharf

207-415-4662

SCSM...@aol.com

PS:  It was a nice opportunity to see Rioux campus state of the art facility.  It is a gorgeous building and has gorgeous views of the Portland waterfront.

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[Luke Bartol]

I also attended this meeting (I was actually sitting just to your left Steven), definitely some interesting info, especially around their confidence in the station move.

I asked Patricia some questions about the 200 parking spots being enough, she indicated that they had gathered data (unsure how) which indicated that <200 of the cars parked at PTC daily for the train. I buy the argument of many of the PTC cars being Logan travelers. She also pointed towards the potential Falmouth station as reducing parking demand from folks driving down from L/A.

When she saw my bike helmet she noted that the new station would allow a connection for cyclists across the tracks from St John St to Mercy, but looking at the renderings that had it seems like this would be up stairs and through the station, which isn't really a selling point as it's likely longer than the current route of going around to the Fore River Parkway.

I do think the 15 minutes is a significant effect as someone who used to ride the train from Brunswick, but not sure if those ridership numbers along justify the change. Still, I do think addressing the fact that the train is both slower and more expensive than the bus is key to getting more ridership.

Seconding the impressiveness of the Roux, it was my first time there as well. I will note however, it was tough to find the entrance as you have to go into the parking garage, very clearly designed for folks driving in...

-Luke

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[Scsmedia]

Sorry to have missed seeing you.

The 15 minute savings is immaterial if the train does not stop where most travelers want to go, Downtown Portland.  I think their biggest obstacle is that the property owner of part of the property does not want to sell.  Patricia Quinn said they are not allowed to negotiate with land owners until they get the federal funds which sounds a bit backwards to me.

The building will need to have elevators on both sides of the track for ADA.

I think a Falmouth station would be a more significant improvement to the operations than moving the train station.

The pedestrian entrance for Roux is on the left side of the building on Freedom Way.  I happened to come from the waterfront so was greeted by a staffer at that door.

Steven Scharf

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