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Concord owner says state’s aid for train may hurt buses

By Tux Turkel tturkel@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer

Maine’s leading bus operator is telling state officials that Amtrak’s expansion from Portland to Brunswick may threaten bus service through the midcoast.

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In an effort to lure more riders, Concord Coach Lines is offering promotional $25 bus service between Portland and Boston’s South Station – normally a $44 ticket. The bus line is concerned that subsidized competition by the Downeaster train could affect its business.

John Ewing/Staff Photographer

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Passengers line up to board Concord’s 9:30 a.m. Portland bus to Boston this week. Concord Coach Lines carried more than 410,000 passengers in Maine last year – about 50,000 less than the 460,000 that used the Downeaster in 2009.

John Ewing/Staff Photographer

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Concord Coach Lines met recently with the Department of Transportation to say it will need financial help to compete with the heavily subsidized Downeaster after the train pulls into Brunswick in 2012.

The rail line received a $35 million federal grant last month for the 30-mile extension. About half of Amtrak’s operating costs in Maine are covered by public money.

That’s frustrating to Concord Coach Lines, which carries nearly as many passengers as the Downeaster, despite a state policy that favors trains over buses, in the view of Harry Blunt, Concord’s president.

“We’re not trying to rain on the train,” he said, “but (the state) should be looking at more of a systems approach.”

State officials say they are trying to integrate bus and train service into a statewide transportation system. But the Downeaster is run by a public authority, while Concord is a private company and is limited in its use of government money.

State officials are talking with Concord about its concerns. “We do have a bus policy,” said Sue Moreau, the state’s manager of multimodal planning. “We are doing what we can to support the bus with the funds we have.”

All travel has been reduced by the recession, and the bus and rail lines are down from their peaks in 2008. Concord Coach Lines carried 410,333 passengers in Maine last year. The Downeaster carried 460,202. Both totals are a tiny fraction of the number of people who travel in Maine each year by car.

Blunt would not provide more details on bus ridership. The state will likely request more detailed ridership data as it considers whether to grant the company a subsidy.

Concord’s bread-and-butter in Maine is the Portland-to-Boston run. As the economy recovers, the company is using discounts to lure Mainers south for day trips to Boston.

It’s now running a $25 promotion to generate revenue and attract new riders, an example of how Concord is trying to compete with the train – and coax people out of cars – along the heavily used corridor.

Concord runs 14 trips a day on buses with movies and Internet access. The regular Portland-to-Boston round-trip fare is $44.

The $25 round trip has doubled same-day ridership this winter on trips between Portland and Boston, Blunt said. The bargain fare is in effect from Jan. 3 to March 31, a slow time of year for travel in Maine.

Ridership in southern Maine can’t make up for the thin profit margins along the coast, Blunt said.

Concord runs a route that starts in Bangor and goes through Searsport, Belfast, Camden, Rockland and Brunswick before connecting in Portland. With the exception of Greyhound, which operates one daily trip between Brunswick and Portland, Concord provides the only year-round, intercity transportation along the coast.

Concord runs its coastal route twice daily in summer, but has only enough riders to support one daily trip this winter. Blunt is concerned that the Downeaster will siphon off enough passengers in Brunswick to make the coastal route uneconomical. That’s why it’s asking for government support.

There’s precedent for such aid in underserved, rural areas. The state has secured federal money to help Cyr Bus Lines extend daily service from Bangor into northern Aroostook County. Concord may also qualify, Moreau said.

The Downeaster’s extended service was announced less than a month ago, and talks between Concord and the state are at an early stage. But the state wants to do what it can to help the bus line serve Maine, Moreau said.

At least one transportation advocate says Maine isn’t doing enough to integrate bus and train travel.

The Downeaster’s expansion is great for Maine, but the state should do more to help a private carrier that’s a model for moving people in a rural state, said Maria Fuentes, executive director of the Maine Better Transportation Association.

“It would be a shame, as a state, if we don’t put more focus on a private company that can move so many passengers,” she said.

“There’s a need to have a more integrated policy for how we move people.”

That integration is happening, Moreau said, with the state trying to encourage coordination between bus and train service to give travelers more choices.

For instance, Concord built and owns the Portland Transportation Center. The state built the train platform and pays rent for the Downeaster. It also pays Concord to help manage the facility. Travelers can buy tickets to take a train to Boston, Moreau noted, and return on a bus. She hopes similar arrangements can be made in Brunswick.

That’s the intention of the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority, which operates the Downeaster.

“Our intention is to grow the market of people who use public transportation,” said Patricia Quinn, the agency’s executive director.

Because the Downeaster will serve Brunswick initially with only three trains a day – one of which will return only as far as Portland – Quinn said she’ll look for the bus to supplement service. “My hope and expectation is, we’ll work together as we have in the Portland market,” she said.

Staff Writer Tux Turkel can be contacted at 791-6462 or at:

tturkel@pressherald.com