KENNEBUNK — Kennebunk is hoping to complete a new train platform and begin seasonal service to the town starting on July 1, 2016, according to Economic Development Director Mathew Eddy. Plans to build a temporary platform for 2015 seasonal service were scrapped because of high costs.
Eddy said the town has begun entering into the formal agreements for the project and that requires them to slow down and wait for an environmental review.
“The process is probably a year long,” Eddy said.
Preliminary cost estimates for the platform and design are around $1.1 million, of which $800,000 will be funded through the federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality program, which encourages alternative transit, and the town will be working with the Maine Department of Transportation for those funds. The town authorized $183,000 to purchase the land on Depot Street at a meeting of the Board of Selectmen in October of last year.
“(The federal grant) is on a two-year budget ”“ it’s much like the other federal processes where they want you to get the money out the door in two years or 18 months. We really want to get that July 1, 2016 (deadline),” Eddy said.
Eddy said they will likely work along the north side of the old train station on Depot Street, which now hosts the advertising firm Dietz Associates. Pan Am Railways holds a right-of-way for the other side of the tracks. Based on studies and numbers from the other seasonal stop on the Downeaster line ”“ in Old Orchard Beach ”“ Kennebunk estimates they will need 40-90 parking spaces at the station; 17,764 passengers departed or alighted from the Old Orchard Beach station in 2013.
“The good news is the money is in place. Once we get to the start of work … we’ll get in touch with Pan Am about getting the lease agreement in place,” Eddy said.
According to initial estimates, the stop wouldn’t add more than a few minutes onto the total trip time. Presently the speed limit on the tracks through Kennebunk is 60 mph, and the time difference would depend on a number of factors including the time of day.
“It might add another 3-5 minutes and that’s basically an assumption,” Jim Russell of the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority said. “Amtrak will do a full operating scenario that will more finally determine it.”
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