Schedule upgrade effective November 12th just in time for holiday rush. All 5 RTs duing week will originate and terminate at Brunswick. One weekender still at Portland.
http://amtrakdowneaster.com/sites/default/files/schedule/2018_FALLWinterSchedule_8.5x11_1_.pdf
Why is this an upgrade? It still takes 2 1/2 hours to take a trip from Portland to Boston when you can get on the bus and be in Boston in less than 2 hours. Plus this will mean a lower cost recovery as the extra costs will not be offset by increased revenue as proven by the decrease in cost recovery from 50% to 45% when the Brunswick Extention opened. This colossal failure should be textbook for states seeking to extend their Amtrak service from a major city to a smaller one a few miles beyond. Most people in Brunswick still drive to Portland to take the faster bus. The Brunswick Extention now carries about 130 passengers per day spread over 6 trains (3 in each direction). I doubt this will change much with another 4 trains.
Am I correct in thinking that, in the late 1930s and early 1940s, Boston and
Maine offered passenger service taking only one hour fifty minutes to complete
the Boston North to Portland run? I thought this summer’s track upgrade would
cut some minutes from the Boston North to Portland run.
You are correct. According to the April 1936 timetable, the Flying Yankee was scheduled to run from Boston to Portland, Maine in 1 hour 50 minutes. The second train made more stops, but it still got from Boston to Portland in 2 hours, 10 minutes.
In July of 1943, the non-stop trains made the trip in 2:05.
Presumably the war time train used the same streamlined equipment. I wonder if the additional time was due to a government mandate to slow down to conserve fuel?
Along the same lines, what measures if any, did the government impose on U.S. railroads to conserve fuel during the war years?