Daily Willie Green Choo-Choo thread.
Promoting 19th Century technology for the 21st Century.
Fifty years to the week after passenger rail service ended in Bethel because no one wanted to travel in all the style, punctuality and comfort of the 19th century....
The train station was built in the early 1990s, and ski train service operated for two years until it was discontinued because of meager ridership.
Enthusiastic support - There was plenty of support and ideas for bringing back trains.
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The was ethusiastic support in the early 1990’s when they built the facilities in the first place. But talk is cheap and trains limit the travel choice too much for most people.
You mean “Major landowners in Maine see the chance to make a quick buck off the back of the taxpayer.”
Those 70 are the only ones who will use this boondoggle while it drains millions from the public treasury!
“They predicted that European tourists, skiers, local retirees and businesspeople, as well as residents from all over western Maine would ride the rails on a Portland-to-Montreal route like the one which once ran through Bethel.”
Some prediction. Who in their right mind would not want to go to Bethel? Think of all those europeans looking for somewhere to go? I can’t wait to subsidized train travel for europeans and retired folks, not that I haven’t subsidized their defense and retirement for my entire life. Now they get free rides on a choo choo.
Daily Willie Green Choo-Choo thread.
Promoting 19th Century technology for the 21st Century.
Lot’s of “hope” for ridership but the cold hard facts from the shutdown due to poor ridership still hangs there like a cloud of coal smoke, hugging the ground. Did any of those “hopers” explain what changed to make their prediction something more than a pipedream?