Saturday, August 22, 2009

Somebody was thinking

So the family and I were coming home from a nice little local restaurant over the line in Maine, and we are driving back through Dover, of course have to stop and get a bit of icecream ;) Well it was about time for the Downeaster to be roaring through on its way to Portland, Maine from Boston, and right on time, 6:30 rolls into the station. Now I love catching the train, I remember the inauguration of the rout back in 2001 as the line reopened after 40 years or something, it has also been the fasted growing line in the entire Amtrak network, and I think either breaks even or might make money, either way, its a wonderful train and I am happy to have the options! What I did want to mention was the way it connected to the local bus services. Wildcat transit, which is run by UNH from Durham had arrived at the station about 5 minutes before the train and waited until after it had left the station to leave, and 2 of the Coast buses came, one before and waited and then one after. All of the buses have bicycle access through front racks, to ease in transportation mode changes. The train does not carry bikes from the Dover station, but I am working on a way so they in theory could, anyway. It was nice and refreshing to see, even the little public transport options we have, working together and syncing up. Too often in the US nobody pays attention to these things and you either miss the connection by 5 minutes or you have to wait an hour. So cudos to Amtrak, Coast, and Wildcat transit for working together.

Downeaster
Coast Bus
Wildcat Transit

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