Nine: Portland and South Portland, Maine

I was on my way back from the far north and decided to poke my head in at Portland to see what was around. Sunday traffic is pretty stop  and go the closer you get to New Hampshire and Massachusetts, so it wasn't like I was getting anywhere. I stopped at the Amtrak/Bus station and found Amtrak 116 tied up with an Amcoach. I am not sure what the deal is with just one loco and one car. I don't know enough about operations there, so maybe a local can enlighten me?

I am

glad to see this station and the Amtrak operation. Way back in the mid-90s I rode the first passenger train to run between Boston and Portland since Boston & Maine days. It was a press junket to show the value of the service and that it could be a viable option. The trainset they used was a tilt-train that didn't do so well on Guilford's less than perfect right of way. The trip itself seemed to take forever as well, again thanks to Guilford's less than perfect trackage. But it turned out to be a positive trip because it did lead to Amtrak's Downeaster service, which I realize is heavily subsidize. Show me a passenger operation that isn't heavily subsidize? As this month's issue of Trains points out: Passenger trains don't make money.

I got back on I-95 and headed south, but then the bug bit me again. South Portland and Rigby Yard are just a couple miles off the beaten path. So why not? I arrived to see the lineup in the yard that included former CSX C40-8, another Pan Am hand-me-down. It hasn't got its blue dip yet, but I bet it will look handsome when the paint shop crew gets a crack at it.

Then it was back on I-95 ... and sitting in bumper to bumper as Maine and New Hampshire took their tolls. See? Passenger service cost money no matter what the conveyance.