Congratulations to the Freeport Town Council for joining their neighbors in Yarmouth to approve a new bus service to Portland.

The three-year experiment can begin as soon as next summer, and would have buses running in a loop from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. The service would work for commuters as well as people who prefer to leave their car at home when they shop or go to a doctor’s visit. It is the first expansion of METRO/Greater Portland in a decade, providing a transportation alternative that has been needed for a long time.

This is a positive development, but we hope that it’s not the last stop for the development of transit in Greater Portland. Buses are a great way to move people, but light rail is better and this new route should be seen as a first step toward introducing commuter service to the region.

Trains are hard to introduce because of the high cost of laying track and building facilities for passengers to get on and off. Buses use the roads and drop people off at curbs that have already been built, so they look like a relative bargain. But there are other factors that make trains a better investment.

Trains spark economic development in a way that buses don’t. Businesses want to be near train terminals. It’s also a good place to develop housing. The mere presence of a train terminal spurs economic development, increasing value and property tax revenue that offsets the up-front investment.

Investors just don’t build next to bus lines in the same way. A bus stop is not permanent and routes can be changed on a whim. They are a good introduction to public transit for communities that are not currently served, but they don’t have the same impact as a rail system would.

Greater Portland is attracting attention as one of the nation’s most livable locations. The region has come out of the recession more quickly than the rest of the state and it is the engine of the Maine economy.

Smart investment in transportation now will help this boom continue. Greater Portland needs commuter rail service to reach its development potential and we should start making that happen.


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