https://www.pressherald.com/2018/04/17/maine-voices-rail-authority-demonstrates-two-degrees-of-fraud-waste-and-abuse/It began this way:
“Nobody spends somebody else’s money as carefully as he spends his own.” – Milton FriedmanWe posted on it, including a couple of follow up posts that provided additional detailed information about the claims made in the above column. You can see them here:
https://othersideofbrunswick.blogspot.com/2018/04/sides-opinion-published-in-portland.html
https://othersideofbrunswick.blogspot.com/2018/04/footnotes-to-post-on-our-pph-column.html
https://othersideofbrunswick.blogspot.com/2018/04/quick-note-on-pph-opinion-column.htmlIf you are a dedicated reader, or even just an interested student, you might review all of the above, and we would be truly honored if you do.
If not, we can summarize things for all the above with a few key points:
- NNEPRA claimed that the $10 million Royal Siding Project is a necessity to grow Downeaster Round Trips between Portland and Brunswick from three (3) to five (5). NNEPRA published rationale for the project, and it included this very clear assertion:
- To be clear, their claim was that round trips could not be increased unless the siding was built.
- We argued, with the help of a true railroading expert, that there was no need for the project, because several passing alternatives in the vicinity could provide the needed flexibility to accommodate increasing the round trips.
- We described how we had submitted written requests, with very specific detailed arguments, to all involved authorities in Maine State Government, asking for a detailed review of the need for the project before proceeding. And we received not even a trickle of a response.
How do we know? Because of two simple realities:
First, NNEPRA expanded the number of round trips from three to five on November 12th of last year, well before the siding was even expected to be completed. They announced this in a release on their web page with these words:
“The Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority (NNEPRA), managing agency of the Amtrak Downeaster passenger rail service, has announced more train service to Freeport and Brunswick beginning Monday, November 12, 2018. Beginning November 12, two (2) additional round trips will serve Freeport and Brunswick on weekdays (5 round trips total), with one additional trip on weekends (4 round-trips total).“
Here’s the link: https://www.nnepra.com/sites/default/files/2018_1101_More_Service_to_Freeport_and_Brunswick.pdfSecond, NNEPRA has made it clear that the Siding Project will not be completed until at least one year after the expansion. They began with these words on their web site:
“Pan Am anticipates continuing to construct track throughout this Fall 2018 and intends to keep working until the weather makes it too difficult this winter. Work will resume in the Spring, with full Project completion is (sic) anticipated by late Spring 2019. “
Here’s the link: https://www.nnepra.com/projects/royal-junction-siding.htmlIt turns out that this initial schedule projection has not been met, and when we attended the latest Board Meeting a few weeks ago, it was stated that Pan Am is now projecting a completion date of “Thanksgiving.”
In other words, service expansion to/from Brunswick will have been in operation for at least a year before the siding is completed.
We consider this to be prima facie evidence that suspicions were confirmed and our allegations were proven correct. Accordingly, we decided it was time to follow up to the Press Herald column of last April with full disclosure of how events had unfolded.
So we submitted the item attached below to the Press Herald for publication. It was rejected without explanation, so we asked why. This is the response we got:
“A reader would have to be very well versed in the ins and outs of NNEPRA and the Royal Siding Project to appreciate your submission.”In other words, readers of the Press Herald are not well enough informed to understand the column, even though links were provided to every aspect of the case made and the background for it. It never dawned on the editors that they may have something to do with readers not being well informed.
We decided to submit it to the Times Record/Forecaster, which at this point, are all owned by the same media tycoon, along with nearly every other print media outlet in Maine.
We got no response, so we followed up. This time we were told:
“I will not be printing this submission as it is a followup to a different newspaper.”So there you have it; no print outlet in Brunswick, the northern terminus of the Downeaster round trips, or Portland, the southern terminus of the expansion, cares to publicize the facts associated with the “public servants” who manage Downeaster operation.
Which leaves us no option but to publish it here and on The Maine Wire, where no such limitations are in place. We hope you will read the column below to wrap a bow around the issue. And that you’ll appreciate our reference to swamps.
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Confirmed: NNEPRA's $10 Million Royal Siding Is A Fraud
In April last year, the Press Herald ran my Maine Voices submission; it began with this:
“Nobody spends somebody else’s money as carefully as he spends his own.” – Milton Friedman
My thesis was that NNEPRA's proposed Royal Siding Project was declared unnecessary by a career railroad professional with bona fides well beyond anyone in the NNEPRA sphere, and had not been subjected to peer review by qualified experts.
NNEPRA's rationale was that it was necessary to increase Downeaster daily round trips between Portland and Brunswick from three to five. (I learned at the recent NNEPRA Board Meeting that they plan a sixth daily round trip!)
The record now shows that daily round trips were increased to five nearly a year ago, while the siding is still incomplete; game, set, match you might say.
The previous column pointed out that two existing bypass options are close by, and multiple siding options exist near the train layover facility, but they’ve been ignored by the rail authority, while the Maine Department of Transportation and the Legislature’s Transportation Committee apparently couldn't care less.
Hence the project was demonstrably a fraud; a wholly avoidable waste of $10 million in taxpayer money.
A written request was submitted to relevant legislative committees, the Governor’s Office, and MDOT leadership to order a stop on the project, pending a detailed investigation and peer review. It clearly cited the analysis of existing rail system design.
Given the counter-arguments, it was clear there was no credible explanation for the project other than a $10 million quid-pro-quo for Pan Am Railways to secure the additional slots on their tracks required to expand Downeaster trips. Capital improvement dollars and make work activity; what's not to like?
I said so with apprehension, worried it would rain down significant editorial attacks, or worse. Surprisingly, not a single official reply of any sort, let alone a refutation, was forthcoming. Hmmmm, I thought; I wonder why.
No matter; inconvenient realities since that column have made the point undeniably. On the NNEPRA web site you'll find this passage:
“Pan Am anticipates continuing to construct track throughout this Fall 2018 and intends to keep working until the weather makes it too difficult this winter. Work will resume in the Spring, with full Project completion is (sic) anticipated by late Spring 2019. “As it turns out, the project is not yet complete, and the latest estimate by Pan Am is that it will be completed “by Thanksgiving.”
On the same web site you'll find these words:
“The Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority (NNEPRA), managing agency of the Amtrak Downeaster passenger rail service, has announced more train service to Freeport and Brunswick beginning Monday, November 12, 2018. Beginning November 12, two (2) additional round trips will serve Freeport and Brunswick on weekdays (5 round trips total), with one additional trip on weekends (4 round-trips total). “To summarize, the need for the siding has been grossly misrepresented; the $10 million in other people’s money is a waste of funds we don’t have; and those who could have corrected this situation abused the trust the public places in them. Not a soul in the authority chain seems to give a damn about it. And they want us to call them “Public Servants?”
Swamp denizens would be more accurate. Milton Friedman was on point.
Swamps are “safe spaces” for the political class. Shame is not in the vocabulary; the water is murky and not the least bit transparent; and the critters have no idea what accountability means.
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