Seven years ago this month, I rode the inaugural train (November 1, 2012) out of Brunswick with former Governor Angus King and Pan Am President David Fink. I had been commuting out of Exeter NH and Portland Maine on any given weekday but now I was able to roll out of bed onto a train in Brunswick and travel to my job in Boston. I became the first monthly pass-holder from Brunswick which enabled me to get on and off anywhere along the route. Five days later, Angus was elected Senator and shortly thereafter I began writing this Boston & Maine Connecction column during my commute. With WiFi, a café car and generous seating, the train had become my De facto office. WiFi and eticketing for all of Amtrak began on the Downeaster and my days were happily surrounded by creative, entrepreneurial types from NNEPRA to the startups I worked with in my Chief Marketing Officer job in Cambridge MA.
Seven years later, the Downeaster has the best customer satisfaction numbers in the Amtrak system. I’ve been known to get on and off in Haverhill MA and Freeport Maine or play in Old Orchard Beach without worrying about parking or traffic and there’s a caring community of engineers, conductors and train hosts from TrainRiders/Northeast that keep the ride safe and enjoyable. These folks along with NNEPRA, led by the very adept Patricia Quinn, enable continually high scores in customer experience. The ability to commute to work by train between Portland and Brunswick is a reality and NNEPRA’s recent open house explored a service expansion that could create a morning inbound rail commute to Portland and Brunswick from Wells. At a time when climate change and carbon footprint rank high in the news, there are several levels of pleasure to be gained from looking out the train window along 295 or 95 while speeding along by rail.
It was Angus King who rightly declared that when the Downeaster pulled out of the station, it turned into a long skinny Maine town. I’ve heard more stories and met more people who’ve connected in some way while freely moving about in the train or while sitting in the café. There’s no middle seat causing armrest warfare nor seatbacks, so-in-your-face, that you feel like you’re flying in an overstuffed sardine can in the sky.
W
ith the civility of rail travel, you can take the time to meet fellow passengers or have the luxury of personal space to get work done while in transit. On a recent journey, I met up in Boston’s South Station with a couple who had come in from Chicago on Amtrak’s Lake Shore Limited. We ended up sharing a meal on the Florida bound Silver Meteor as these folks were on their way to Jacksonville. One mention of Maine and we were soon talking about David Schaaf’s Navy service on the Bath built USS Robert Wilson (DD-847). A post World War Two Gearing Class Destroyer that was later assigned the abort station for the first unmanned Apollo space shot and then as prime recovery ship for the Gemini 9 space mission.
These are the stories that come out of person to person – In Real Life – encounters on rail travel. Over the years, I have shifted my business to be able to leverage the networking power and the eco-friendly transit that rail travel affords. Don’t fall for the “railroad subsidy” vs. highway “investment” language that incorrectly identifies automobiles and trucks as the eco-transportation mode. The trains I travel on are often filled to capacity – taking hundreds of cars off the road for any given trip. Our human need for connection gains the added benefit of random meetups and life changing opportunities.
That Boston and Maine travel Connection? Mark Twain described its value long ago:
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”
So get out there and be among the people. You might just find a little more joy in the world.