Maine DOT to Meet about Public Transportation
BANGOR — The Maine Department of transportation has started the process to connect the Bangor area to Portland and auburn via rail.
The Maine Department of transportation has confirmed that it will be hosting a meeting on Thursday the 19th to discuss the potential of improving Bangor’s inter-city bus service and adding a passenger rail that would connect Bangor and Augusta to Portland.
This meeting is following a months-long survey and study the dot has conducted about the potential projects.
“I believe that the purpose of the meeting is just to kind of at a high-level look at what the travel modes are currently in the corridor, conceptually who could be using an enhanced service, what the demand would potentially be, and then some really high-level costs,” says Sara Devlin, the executive director of Bangor area comprehensive transportation system or BACTS.
Devlin was part of the advisory committee for the dot’s survey and she says that these additions would be good for the greater bangor area but she does have a concern about the cost.
Maine state senator Joe Baldacci has been a long-time advocate for the addition of a Bangor public railway but he’s not getting his hopes up about this meeting.
“You know, the dot is not interested in doing any kind of leg work on this and I hate to be this – usually I try to reserve my comments and I try not to be negative as often as I can but in this case they have really done everything they can to make this as difficult as possible,” says Baldacci.
Baldacci says that the survey done by the dot was little more than a Gallop poll and didn’t examine how much of a positive impact the railway could be.
We spoke with a few people in the bangor area about the potential of a public railway and the overwhelming consensus was that they wanted it.
“Unequivocal yes. Do you know what it would be like to get to new york on amtrak after driving to bangor instead of doing this wonderfully circuitous route,” says one traveler.
If you would like to attend the dot’s public zoom meeting, the link can be found here.
The post Maine DOT to Meet about Public Transportation appeared first on WVII / Fox Bangor.