TRNE Chair: “I wish I had never brought the train to Brunswick….”

Be patient, friends.  You’ll have to read the whole story to get to the really juicy part.
You may have seen a so-called response last week in the Press Herald, by a TRNE groupie, to our Maine Voices column of 12 November, posted here:  http://othersideofbrunswick.blogspot.com/2015/11/pph-maine-voices-rerouting-downeaster.html

We just posted this response, a few days later than we would have liked, but getting over the nausea caused by Menair’s words took longer than expected.  Here it is:
=======================================================================

I authored the November 12^th Maine Voices Mr. Menair is responding to in his essay of December 9th. Further, he was in attendance when I briefed the Passenger Rail Advisory Committee in Augusta (http://www.scribd.com/doc/284589130/PRAC-PDF-Briefing-13-October-15)  Much of his second paragraph is clearly aimed at myself and my colleagues, who have become the first spirited opposition to Maine's passenger rail advocates. If you look into things, you'll quickly realize that all Menair has is airy platitudes to make his case, because the facts on the ground do not support his position.

Menair's offering is so full of fantasies and claptrap that I hardly know where to begin in responding. If nothing else, he makes it clear why modern day passenger rail advocates like he, TrainRiders Northeast (TRNE), All Aboard Brunswick and the rest are increasingly referred to as 'foamers' nationally and in Augusta. But I've got to begin somewhere. So in no particular order, here are comments of the moment:

• Anyone who wants to hammer us with the term 'urban planning' here in Maine immediately disqualifies himself. Urban is best translated as 'citified,' and with the possible exception of Portland, I'm not aware of any city or region in Maine that wants to be labeled as 'citified.' People don't move to Maine or remain in Maine to have a citified lifestyle. If that's what Menair and his friends want, they should move (back) to Boston, New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington, or wherever else they came from or aspire to. Brunswick for one has a large contingent of retired bureaucrats and related career types who moved here for the rural life style Maine offers. Stop trying to project your old lifestyle, or your vision of big city 'benefits' on a state that wants exactly the opposite, and isn't in the least adaptable to such 'planning.' If you want three times an hour traffic reports 'from the sky' on your radio or TV, go find them elsewhere; there are more choices than you might know.
  
• Putting the interests of less than 40 round trip riders who choose the Brunswick Downeaster runs daily, and 400 or so Mainers overall, ahead of hundreds of thousands of local residents who don't, isn't putting 'people before cars.'
  
• Oil prices influencing the trade-off? The Downeaster budgets $10,000 a day for diesel fuel, of which much is burned sitting and idling, going nowhere. World oil markets have the potential to seriously effect it's operation accordingly, since this accounts for 15% of operating expenses.
  
• If “urban planning” means federal authorities steam-rolling over Municipal Zoning Regulations due to pre-emption, we should want no part of it. If forward progress means federal and state authorities trampling over the domestic tranquility of hundreds of families, while being exempted from environmental regs they instituted, then we have lost our collective sense of behaving responsibly.
  
• Since TRNE is one of the charities to which NNEPRA regularly donates, we should expect no less in the way of advocacy from Menair and them. Recently, their Chairman, Wayne Davis, told a reporter that the Brunswick 'business community' donated $50,000 to them to help pay for 'legal fees.' We'd sure like to know which businesses that would be, since we can't think of any besides Brunswick Taxi that are prospering because of the Brunswick Downeaster service, transporting Amtrak crews back and forth between Brunswick and Portland twice a day.
  
• Menair's reference to Brunswick Station is hollow. Take the medical offices away, which have nothing to do with the train, and you have nothing left but a bank and a few other small businesses that have nothing to do with train travelers. Unless you believe people take the train to Brunswick for Guinness and a burger, or to get hearing aids. "The Inn" is a gift to Bowdoin; and the other structures simply took advantage of land lying unused for years, that could have been developed in other forms with the same encouraging “gifts” from beleaguered town taxpayers.  The planned housing is a distant memory no one brings up.

                       

• One of the comments to Menair's piece praises him for summarizing 'the very strong reasons justifying this action well,' and describes the 'benefit for the many, and the environment, that will result from the layover facility.' That doesn't pass the most rudimentary smell test, even with the help of a clothespin. Passenger rail is first and foremost a clear cut case of the many paying for a boutique service for the few in the carriage set, and in the case of the Downeaster, is certifiably a detriment to the environment. The reference to living near the railroad is also bogus, since long established zoning regs would not allow this heavy industrial use or a building of this size. But when the government comes to help us, such details are irrelevant.
  
• As a friend remarked, “the rebuttal to this nonsense is to imagine Maine without the Downeaster and nothing but roads to get around. How does that work? Now, imagine Maine with no roads, but trains going everywhere. How would that be an improvement? Trains or no trains, Maine's future and America's future has cars (or some other form of PERSONAL mobility) and roads in it.”
  
• Another friend added “When is a train like a ship? Answer: When its capacity far exceeds its market demand and the excessive cost of providing service results in unjustifiable and intolerable financial losses. The Portland-Halifax “Nova Star” is the marine equivalent of the Portland-Brunswick ”Downeaster” (two years and $41-million of losses, albeit shared by the cruise operator).”

A few pithy quotes seem appropriate here. From Ayn Rand: “You can ignore reality, but you can't ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.” And then: “Rationalization is a process of not perceiving reality, but of attempting to make reality fit one's emotions.”

That last one seems perfectly matched to Menair and TRNE. But you might prefer this headline from a recent print article in another state: “Tomorrow's dollars to pay for yesterday's ideas.”
As a last point, if Menair and TRNE believe the Brunswick service and the Brunswick MLF are so vital, why was Wayne Davis heard saying recently “I wish we had never brought the train to Brunswick?” Or was it “I wish I HAD NEVER....” which would be more in keeping with his and TRNE's self-anointed role as NNEPRA's creator and Svengali.
================================================================
                   

We can guess at why he wishes so: because the train and the MLF are a dumb-ass idea?  Or is it because it’s given us a glimpse of what lies down the Downeaster rabbit-hole of Patsy in Wonderland?  And opened up a Pandora’s box of scrutiny, analysis, and visibility behind the cheery facade, including an OPEGA audit?

Which leads to the following questions:  When NNEPRA announces that the Brunswick MLF will be named the “Wayne Davis Memorial Passenger Rail Layover Facility,” will said Svengali decline the honor?  And does NNEPRA still plan on adding Sleeper cars to every Downeaster train set?

Come to think of it; given all the empty seats and time spent going nowhere, perhaps the train could be used to provide a warm place to sleep for the homeless of our state when space is available.

                      

And that’s the news from Wayne’s World.  Party on, Garth.  (The photo above is from an earlier faze in Wayne’s career; his countenance has changed markedly, as has that of his blonde friend.)

Technorati Tags: Brunswick,MLF,Wayne Davis,TRNE

Consultants: Honest brokers, or agenda driven parasites, servicing willing hosts?

In our career, starting from our earliest days in graduate school, back in the OJ at USC era, the term ‘consultant’ has always been part of the vernacular, whatever the hell that means.

We could go on ad nauseum about the subject.  Come to think of it, if we ever tire of the Other Side cognomen, we might decide to rename our publication “Ad Nauseum.”

Suffice it to say that in our personal experience, the term ‘consultant’ has progressed from an indicator of expert stature worthy of respect to a common-place term describing a class of money-grubbing predators milking the public teat for all it’s worth.  Which means they’re only marginally more respectable than those engaged in the ‘oldest profession.’

Feel free to challenge this view; we’re pretty sure we’ve got more hard evidence for our position than you might have for an opposing view.  Keep in mind that the ‘oldest profession’ at least involves voluntary engagement in a free market transaction.  In contrast, the consultant industrial complex that thrives in today’s OPM marketplace works out of public view, sucking scarce dollars from the public treasury with promises of ‘drawing down’ federal dollars (and state dollars as well) with glorious predictions of irresistible levels of economic benefit.

Or as our good friend, the real estate professional Tony Donovan likes to say, ‘exponential economic prosperity’ being experienced in Brunswick.  Like the recent shut-down of the long standing Mobil station and convenience store on Bath Road.  Must be an exponential anomaly, to coin a new term.

Moving on to specifics, you might remember this glowing prediction for a prosperity explosion here in Brunswick due to Downeaster passenger rail service:

     

This prediction was cited by the Center for Neighborhood Technology, a ‘consulting firm’ in Chicago hired by NNEPRA to perform a widely circulated study they issued in 2008.  Consultants like to base their work on the efforts of fellow consultants who rode the rails before them.  So they came up with this estimate of where good intentions can lead:

   

Recently we became aware that CNT had been engaged by NNEPRA for a follow up effort called “The Downeaster Going Forward.”  This draft study was delivered in 2014, and for reasons we can’t explain, has not been published in final form by CNT or NNEPRA, and it is not available on the internet.  We do, however, have a hard copy of the work, and we find it to be, well, ‘consistent’ with the clap-trap in earlier efforts.  We plan to scan and publish salient excerpts from this funded effort.

Sorry…we digressed into petty personal editorializing on the works of others, paid for by Maine taxpayers.  Shame on us.  So let’s elevate the discussion.

We decided to look into CNT’s pedigree.  Here’s what we came up with, all from their web site, www.cnt.org.

The words that ‘trigger’ our interest in this first clip are ‘nonprofit’ and ‘advocacy.’  As we see it, objective,  honest broker consultants should not be engaged in advocacy; in fact, anything but.  And they should be interested in prospering in the sense of profitability, which would allow them to keep operating – sustainably, to borrow a term.  It’s clear from other words in their self-description that they are agenda driven, with a clear ideological bias.

Which is amplified in the above snip.

In this snip, we see that CNT is beholden to a variety of charitable foundations and other supporters to keep operating.  We’ll let you follow up on the specifics, which we have already done to some degree.  If and when you do, you’ll discover, as we did – that CNT is anything but an objective, detached organization providing research and analysis that may or may not affirm the interests of its clients.

As such, we should be outraged that a state agency like NNEPRA in this case, and likely many more that we don’t know about, use our money to hire shills and parasites that tell them whatever they want to hear, and back it up with references, tables, and narrative to overwhelm any opposition that might arise.

We’ll close by asking whether you would hire the Hershey Corporation to operate a nutritional education program for food-stamp recipients.  Or the Louisiana State Chamber of Commerce to do a study describing Maine’s “Quality of Place.”  Or the Ford Motor Corporation to do an objective analysis of Maine State Government’s vehicle fleet needs and operations.

We hope you wouldn’t.  None-the-less, you can see why ‘ad nauseum’ seems to be on the tip of our tongue at the moment.

Technorati Tags: consultants,NNEPRA,Downeaster,taxpayers

Are you one of “the 17,” or are you 18, 19, or 20?

British Dictionary definitions for Balkanize:

verb:

1.  (transitive) to divide (a territory) into small warring states

2.  to divide (a group or organization) into small factions

If you follow financial and economic matters, you’re probably familiar with the term “leading economic indicators,” which contrasts them with their relatives, the “trailing economic indicators.”  The former, of course, are interpreted as predictive of future trends, while the latter characterize recent history. 

In the same fashion, there are “leading cultural indicators” and “trailing cultural indicators.”  We doubt these terms are unique to us, but if you want to think we just coined them, knock yourself out.

    

Here in Brunswick, whether you realize it or not, we’re fortunate to have first hand glimpses of these indicators.  We refer, of course, to Bowdoin College, the boot camp where future leaders of the culture wars are trained in the ways of cultural combat, ranging from hand to hand techniques, to larger scale methods of mass cultural destruption.

In this steaming pile of intellectual compost, where young human seedlings are nurtured with untested and sometimes deviant ‘organic’ fertilizers of the mind, the often startling results are on full display, if only you look.  

We do our looking primarily through the student newspaper  - The Bowdoin Orient – where the fruits, vegetables, and nuts of the Bowdoin ‘garden of the mind’ are frequently displayed and discussed.

Here’s an elementary example from the most recent issue’s Security Report:

Wednesday, December 2:  A student reported seeing a suspicious character walking near Baxter House.  It turned out to be just a suspicious-looking faculty member.

(Ed. note:  the above photo of a plunger-headed chap is, for those with a good memory of Other Side past classics, reminiscent of one showing Bowdoin Professor Vladimir Duhovnikoff similarly adorned; said photo has seemingly been expunged from the digital universe, and with good reason.)

Moving along to the real point of our discussion, we assert that today’s political landscape, and the culture at large, is wholly based on and driven by ‘identity group’ considerations.  Nowhere is this more apparent and active than on college campuses, as evidence by the shining example right here in town.  This is in keeping with the broader national landscape, which grew in large part from the seedlings grown in academia.  And such seedlings have now become invasive species thanks to the multiplicative effects of ‘social media.’  Which should really be treated as an infectious social disease of the new age.

We submit that the identity group structure, especially on campuses like Bowdoin, is Balkanization on a personal level.  It’s driven by the dominant grievance mentality of our day, and the victims so represented seek appeasement in what ever form they can compel from those who govern their lives.  As you might expect, the more appeasement that issues forth, the more grievances that follow.

Just take a look at recent events at Princeton, Dartmouth, Yale, MIzzou, and other bastions of academic freedom, intellectual exploration, and “learning.”  We don’t know how well Bowdoin’s new President, Clayton Rose, had prepared himself for the realities of the college experience, but he’s up to his intellect in it now! 

And he’s already bowing obediently to student pressure, real or not.  He knows if he doesn’t demonstrate suitable obeisance, he could be gone in a flash, if only to quell student protests.  Witness this report:

      

You can infer what you wish from the subtleties of the wording employed here; we certainly have, and in our view, he’s already admitting guilt on behalf of the college, and appropriate consideration will have to be forthcoming.  The only question is how far it will go, and how it will set the stage for further repentance.

Now take a look at this item from the same front page, which gave rise to our title for this post:

Note that there are already 17 various campus groups defined by Multi-cultural parameters of whatever sort are used these days.  We suspect most Side readers would have trouble coming up with more than 10 labels for such groups, which just shows how uneducated and insensitive most of us are.  17 even puts the Balkan region to shame.

Still, we ask if you are one of the 17, or whether three of five (or even more!) groups would need to be created to see that the interests of YOUR identity group would receive equal billing and consideration.  How we would love to see a listing of the 17.

On second thought, perhaps not.  Instead, we could keep ourselves busy looking at the Bias Incident Display.  You see, if you thought the Bowdoin Campus was an enlightened “space” when it comes to such things, you would be wrong.

Some excerpts:

Another recounts a sexual encounter during which the author felt “fetishized and unsafe” because the man she was with would repeatedly ask her if she were a lesbian, as he had seen her name on the OutPeers list. “I repeatedly told him no…[he] was fixated on my queerness,” the story read.

We’ll file that one under “reaping what you have sown.”

One story explained, “Telling the stories and incidents that have happened to me on campus cannot begin to describe the pain I feel inside.”

No doubt the campus is a reflection of the local community, with a soupcon or two of added refinement and dignity.  Only time will tell.

Anyone up for occupying council chambers and demanding something?  It doesn’t matter what, as long as it’s SOMETHING!  ANYTHING! 

To right historic wrongs.  And anyone who denies they’ve occurred needs to step down from office.  NOW!  Power to the people!

Technorati Tags: Bowdoin College,culture wars,Brunswick,multiculturalism,identity groups

Non Sequitur nails the “Transit Oriented Development” modus operandi

Years ago, a frequent wave off in the bizarre crowd in which we ‘grew up’ was ‘see you in the funny papers.’  It seemed ever so much more sophisticated than ‘see you later, alligator,’ which was memorialized in song.  By Bill Haley and the Comets, wasn’t it?.

Over the years, we came to learn the lesson that good comedy almost always has an element of truth in it.  And that the best of the ‘funny papers’ is very good at poking fun at us, our lives, and those things we consider important.

Shoe, Pebbles, Peanuts, Zits, and any number of other strips often make us chuckle.  Non Sequitur does sometimes, but other times leaves us totally cold.

In recent days, the well known strip offered this insight:

“Studies R Us.”  Geez!  Why didn’t we think of that when we reviewed the scandalous incompetence and wasted dollars represented in the “Transit Oriented Development” studies we’ve told you and others about?  The ones that have driven the ecstatic support for passenger rail spending (‘investment’ to zealots; speculation in reality) in the hundreds of millions of dollars here in Maine and nearby states to create the Downeaster.  Among other marvelous achievements of Government.

We’ll remind you of one of our favorite projections promulgated by one of these charlatans, willingly paid for with YOUR tax dollars, with no challenge to the assertions:

Judging from the cartoon strip above, Wiley Miller is familiar with the efforts of CNT and fellow members of the Consultant Industrial Complex.

Now he needs to take on the gullible and unconcerned bureaucrats who sponsor and then accept the results of such folly, using them to justify irrational spending demands.

To forward their careers, and that of others.

Is this a great country or what?

Don’t answer that, please.

Technorati Tags: Humor,consultants,studies

PPH Maine Voices: Rerouting Downeaster funding to critical priorities

Selected passages:

When complete, this will put total capital expense for the Downeaster in the $150 million-plus range. Add operating deficits since inception, and taxpayers will have kicked in $250 million so far and will keep doing so at $13 million (and growing) in annual operating subsidies alone.

The Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority’s extravagance brings to mind troubling excesses uncovered at other state authorities: the Maine Turnpike and Maine State Housing, which share the same accountability and transparency flaws.

You can read the entire column here: http://www.pressherald.com/2015/11/12/maine-voices-downeaster-funding-should-be-rerouted-to-much-needed-road-repairs/

You probably need the practice on opening links anyway.  Be sure to read the comments; they offer great insight into the public ‘mind-set’ on these matters.  (We hate terms like mind-set, but that’s a topic for another time.)

           

        

We’re hoping our friends at All Aboard Brunswick and ChoochooRidersNortheast chime in soon; we trust they find the position put forth to be enlightening, and more importantly, in the ‘greater community interest,’ which is sacred to them.  They do care about the rest of us, don’t they?

                  

Which brings to mind the theological aspects of transportation in some communities.

Technorati Tags: Press Herald,Amtrak,Downeaster,Brunswick,infrastructure priorities

Unsustainability, thy name is “Legacy Passenger Rail”

 

An assertion that the Amtrak Downeaster excursion on the imaginary axis is a $250 million experiment in legacy transportation is credible and supportable with facts on the public record. 

Even more credible are these passages from the Maine Central Railroad 1959 Annual Report:

 

 

“….conclusively destroying any concept of public necessity.”  We love that phraseology, from the year of our High School graduation, when common sense and rational thought were more in fashion than they are now.  Sadly, a preference for such things is ‘so yesterday.’

Regardless, we thought we’d bring you this latest ‘draft operating budget’ from NNEPRA, the operator of the Amtrak Downeaster.  It’s in two sections because of production issues, which offer us a chance to insert comments along the way.

The budget segment just above shows (in the highlighted entries) that NNEPRA projects operating revenues for the current fiscal year to be less than the projected operating revenues for the prior fiscal year.  Specifically, projected ticket sales are down by $300,000.  They can’t blame this on harsh winters and other deflections.  These are PROJECTIONS.

On the other hand, Amtrak is raising their “rental fees” by $2 million, or 17%!  This is a clear indicator of Amtrak fiscal challenges nation-wide, and it’s sure to continue as the political and economic underpinnings of the Amtrak pipe dream erode. 

“If something cannot go on forever, it will stop" is known as Herbert Stein’s Law.  Unless, of course, you’re able to print as much money as you need, like they do in Washington.

Moving on:

We take issue with the term “Total Capital and Operating Expense.”  Nothing in the way of capital expense is shown in this budget document. 

                 

Not even the cost of the Brunswick MLF.  Nor are peripheral operating costs, such as the cost of the Brunswick Taxi contract (~$200,000 per year), or the municipal expenses for operating/maintaining local stations and “visitors centers.”  This must have been an oversight.  Or perhaps an inadvertent error in transparency.  Thank you, Dr. Gruber.

Ignoring those minor ‘clerical errors’ for the moment, we can’t help but notice that the operating subsidy required for the current year is up by 23% over the actual amount last year, or nearly $2.5 million.  Wow; sounds like awards and bonuses are called for all around!

We also note that in line 3, state match, there is no mention of New Hampshire or Massachusetts chipping in, even though nearly half of Downeaster ridership occurs exclusively within those states.  Can we all take a deduction for subsidizing their train riders; this is an act of ‘charity,’ is it not?

Let’s review the takeaways from the foregoing.

We recognize that some members of our vast readership, and in particular, the ladies of AAB, are unable to grasp the magnitude of numbers like $12.9 million, since the largest number they encounter in an average day is the price of a double decaf latte with extra cinnamon and vanilla syrup and three cherries at a trendy local coffee house.

 

We’ll help them this way.  $12.9 million is $1.075 million per month.  That equates to  $35,833 (plus change) per day, or $1493 per hour.  All year round, every day, every hour.

So what; that’s only $25 a minute or so.  What’s the big deal?

Here’s another way to think of it. Brunswick accounts for roughly 7% of Downeaster ridership, so on a pro-rata basis, we account for $903,000 of this year’s operating deficit.  That’s more than $17,000 per week and nearly $2,500 per day.  To carry 17 riders on an average train.  Not including local subsidy costs.

We trust Our Ladies of Brunswick will write once they have a chance to absorb these ‘figures,’ and construct a counter-narrative based on whatever it is they consume to dream up their fanciful ‘community-based’ justifications for throwing public money down a public rat hole.

We won’t bother you tonight with our estimate of $250 million in speculation on the Downeaster.  Speculation is the right word, and any time you hear someone use the word ‘investment,’ tell them to talk to your hand, if you can find it in your heart to do that.  As for us, we’d use a slightly less civil word than hand.

We won’t tell you about the $75 million or so on basic Downeaster start up; the $75 million or so on extending service north of Portland; or the $100 million or so in annual operating subsidies so far.

But we do want to make sure we’ve got things straight, if you’ll forgive the use of a ‘trigger’ word.  We mean no micro-aggression.

Ticket revenue declining by 3%, and rental costs for train equipment increasing by 17%.  Taxpayer subsidy demand up by 23%.

                   

And you want us to believe this is a sustainable enterprise model?  What do you think we are?  Gullible taxpayers?

    

Oh wait; that’s EXACTLY what we are, isn’t it?

Technorati Tags: Amtrak,Brunswick,Downeaster,NNEPRA,budgets,subsidies,Maine

A “Plan B” for Brunswick….your Monday Night lagniappe

Last week we composed and disseminated a ‘presentation’ inspired by recent transit sector happenings in the Auburn area, juxtaposed against the well known passenger rail silliness that has descended upon Brunswick. 

We’re not going to go through the usual listing of our prior posts on the subject and the related links.  We assume that if you’re a regular reader, and interested in the subject in general, you’ve read our prior items, but if not, will have no problem finding them in the index area to the right side of our page.

Here’s the cover page of this latest composition:

           

You can find the rest of it here:  https://www.scribd.com/doc/288954576/A-Plan-B-for-Brunswick

If you do follow up and look at it, be sure to look at the last page, especially if you consider yourself a realist in economic matters.  It should provide much fodder for critical thought.  You should be able to rotate the budget summary view to the normal reading position by using your pdf viewing options.

If not, have no fear.  In the next day or two, we’ll be providing a detailed commentary on this one page.  Why?  Because it summarizes the folly that is NNEPRA and the Amtrak Downeaster. 

     

Unless you think money grows on trees, and we should be providing carriage level transit for the few at the expense of the many, while much higher priorities in the common interest go unaddressed.

        

On the other hand, this is what makes modern day America what it is.

Technorati Tags: Amtrak,Downeaster,Auburn,Brunswick

“futurely right:” the last refuge of a foamer caught in the headlights

Our text for this homily: Ben Franklin observed, "One of the tragedies of life is the murder of a beautiful theory by a gang of brutal facts.“                     

                      

In past posts over the years, we’ve used images like the one above as a metaphor for gushing over-reaction towards a variety of causes.

Only recently did we learn that the term ‘foamer’ is in widespread use for a more specific circumstance.   We learned of it from a colleague, and passed it along in this post: http://othersideofbrunswick.blogspot.com/2015/10/something-for-aab-to-aspire-to.html

We provided a link to this video: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=dc2_1343850266, which seems to us the quintessential example of a foamer captured live in a moment of railroading rapture.

As phate would have it, our recent letter published in the Forecaster, which we told you about here, flushed out a local example of a foamer from these parts.  He shows himself in the comments that resulted from our letter. (http://www.theforecaster.net/letter-bus-may-serve-brunswick-better-than-train/)

   

Foamers are those who have moved beyond Kool-Aid quaffing, to a more advanced stage of irrationality, and can no longer contain themselves when the object of their affections is questioned.

In the case we’re bringing before you, we suspect that TrainFoamersNortheast, a clandestine coven consisting of ‘selected’ members of TrainRidersNortheast and All Aboard Brunswick, has decided to display their intellects and twisted ethics in public.  Why we’re not sure, but we’re glad they did.

Perhaps the Grand Wizard of TRNE has sentenced them to exile on shady acres somewhere..if he hasn’t, he should.  They add no luster to a group sadly in need of it.

Here’s a look at the comments we’re referring to; ‘farmertom2’ was the first to post a comment:

Note the reference to the “antiplanner” web site.  We’re quite familiar with it; they should think about adding an “antifoamer” subpage to their site.  Next in the comment thread came a discourse on the realities of motor coach vs.Downeaster fuel consumption:

This provoked the best that ‘farmertom2’ has in reply:

As they like to say out in the pasture, ‘holy cow!’

Based on his incisive comment, we’re guessing that ‘farmertom2’ lives somewhere south of Never Willbe, a town ‘that time forgot’ as the old saying goes, and that most of us try not to visit anymore than we have to.

Here’s the costume we suspect he wore for Haloween.

                                

We shouldn’t be too harsh though.   When you can’t find a place in Reality, where else are you gonna put down roots?  Never Willbe doesn’t have very good schools, which is probably why ‘farrmertom2,’ in addition to his other shortcomings, isn’t much of a speller.

We’re sure he meant to identify himself as ‘foamertom2’. 

We’ll close with this zinger:

Winston Churchill complained, "Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.“

We’ve used it before.  So what; we own this ‘publication.’.

Not pastly, not futurely; but nowly.

Technorati Tags: Foamers,Forecaster,fuel consumption,Amtrak,buses

“AAH;” Should Downeaster service be extended to Harpswell?

     

Harpswell issues furtive plea for help from AAB; asks whether funding for railroad bridge from Freeport Station to Harpswell Neck and Bailey Island can be found.

Presumably our award winning friends at AAB are contacting the Oppem Sisters to inquire about funds, but so far, results have not been published.

Here is the referenced article:

http://www.theforecaster.net/harpswell-bus-ridership-low-service-may-shut-down-in-winter/

HARPSWELL — Ridership is low as the town’s first public transportation system heads towards its six-month mark.

As a result, the service may be discontinued during winter.

From the last week of May through the second week of October, only 41 people rode the bus connecting Harpswell Neck to Cook’s Corner and Maine Street Station in Brunswick, according to ridership data from service provider Coastal Trans.

Twenty-one people rode the bus connecting Cundy’s Harbor to Brunswick in the same time period.

The two buses run on Wednesdays, and make three runs between Harpswell and Brunswick each day. There is no charge for the service.

Ridership numbers show that some weeks saw no riders; for two consecutive Wednesdays in June, for example, nobody rode either bus.

Harpswell signed a contract with Coastal Trans, a Rockland-based nonprofit, for the transportation service in May. The company also operates the Brunswick Explorer bus service.

Coastal Trans draws state and federal funding for its operations, but requires a 40 percent local match.

The town appropriated $9,000 for the match at town meeting in March, which is to be paid in two six-month installments.

The funds are a prepayment for the service; actual costs will be tracked and any unused funds will be reimbursed to the town, according to the contract.

In an interview Wednesday, Selectman Elinor Multer said she was not surprised by the initial ridership.

“I always felt that it would be small, and that it would take more than a year to build up anything. … These kinds of things just take a lot of time,” she said. “People are not used to it, many may still never have heard of it.”

Multer said she wants to see how the service performs in the spring, when the weather warms up again.

There is a question, though, of whether the bus routes should be continued in the winter months.

Multer said she is concerned that continuing service through the winter might “waste money.”

“And it is a significant amount of money,” she added.

On the other hand, discontinuing the fledgling service, if only temporarily, may set it back in terms of public recognition.

“I’m not anxious to abandon (the service entirely),” she said. “But the question of whether to run it during the winter is a tougher one.”

Selectman Kevin Johnson on Wednesday said he thinks the Board of Selectmen may shut service down for the winter.

“If ridership is down this fall, there’s no sense keep it going through the winter,” Johnson said.

But, like Multer, he supports continuing the schedule next spring and summer.

“When we signed onto this, we kind of made a commitment to give it a year or two, and not just fold up the tent … if it didn’t work out well,” Johnson said.

Selectmen are scheduled to discuss the public transportation service at their Thursday, Oct. 29, meeting.

         

So, on at least 45 runs each, the service averaged way less than one rider per run.

Yet note the utter failure of ‘officials’ to conclude it’s an unworthy idea that just doesn’t work.

Those behind the good intentions will do anything to prove they were well-founded, no matter how much it costs, regardless of ‘wasting money.’

It’s exactly what AAB and the other elite boosters of Downeaster service do.  Not enough riders?  Solution: run more trains. 

Not enough revenue?  Solution: deepen ticket discounts. 

Not enough economic benefit?  Solution: dredge up long discredited projections as ‘proof.’ 

Arguments so shallow they make soap bubbles seem sturdy? 

Solution: concoct new fantasies and projections, and hire more experts.

     

In so many words, dig in your heels and stick up your chin. 

Because in our increasingly corrupt society, it works like a charm.

Technorati Tags: Harpswell,bus,train,AAB,Freeport,Brunswick

Letter: Bus may serve Brunswick better than trains

http://www.theforecaster.net/letter-bus-may-serve-brunswick-better-than-train/

The above letter recently popped up on the Forecaster web page, and will, we assume, appear in the print editions later this week.  It makes reference to events unfolding in the Lewiston-Auburn area, about which we’ve kept you informed.  The closing passage in the letter is this:

Perhaps the same approach should be used for expanding round-trip service to Brunswick, rather than spending an additional $22 million or more in taxpayer funds to meet unknown demands. Such an expanded bus service might even bring Bath and Topsham into the fold, making use of the bypass off Route 1. If the ridership support isn’t there, the service can be terminated with little lost; if it exceeds projections, it can easily and quickly be expanded.

“Perhaps.”  A profound word in certain circumstances, though it can easily be tossed aside by the illuminati if the hypothesis does not meet their wishes.  You can ponder its relevance here as you gaze at the relevant geography in this image:

Technorati Tags: Perhaps,Buses,Amtrak,passenger rail,Brunswick,Topsham,Bath