Construction on the Downeaster line

The Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority continues to wait for word from Washington about funding for its Brunswick extension project, but in the meantime, construction is about to get underway on a track rehabilitation project in Portland that will improve service on the existing Downeaster route and also prepare tracks for the eventual Brunswick extension.

Earlier this summer, the Federal Railroad Administration announced a half-million-dollar grant to the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority to improve the Downeaster's tracks in Portland, and to upgrade a turnaround near the Merrill Marine Terminal so that future trains will be able to turn and head north to Freeport and Brunswick. The map below shows the tracks that will receive upgrades as a solid red line, and the future northward extension will follow the dashed line up to Woodford's Corner and beyond:

If you've ever ridden the Downeaster, you've probably noticed the slow start coming out of the Portland station. The tracks that thread their way between the Cumberland County Jail and the new Mercy Hospital campus are old, and as a result, passenger trains are limited to a 10 mile-per-hour speed limit between the station and the bridge.

The planned upgrades will boost speeds on that section to 25 mph - not a huge difference, but one that will shave three to five minutes off of every trip south. The turnaround will also help the Downeaster deal with breakdowns more gracefully, and offer more flexibility for freight trains headed to the Merrill terminal.

Construction is set to begin this fall, and is scheduled to be complete by March 2010.

As for the extension to Brunswick, we should have a better idea of where that project stands next month, when the Federal Railroad Administration announces its first high-speed rail grants from the stimulus package (a Wall Street Journal article today outlines the stiff competition for stimulus funds).

Seriously?

Elm Street in Bayside. This is the main route between downtown Portland and the new district of mid-rise office buildings sprouting up along Marginal Way:

Photo by Corey Templeton, originally published in his Walk Around Portland blog.

PACTS blog and the new Regional Bike/Ped Plan

PACTS, the regional planning agency that directs transportation investments in the greater Portland area, has started a blog.

Keeping a government planning website up to date with the latest meeting minutes and planning documents isn't easy, and most public agencies (PACTS included) struggle with it. But blogs are easy for anyone to update, so hopefully, this will give citizens (and PACTS committee members themselves) a better way to stay in the loop.

The inaugural post is all about the draft Regional Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan Update. The centerpiece of this plan is a mapped network of bike routes, sidewalks, and pedestrian trails in the greater Portland area, going as far west as Sebago Lake, south to Biddeford, and north to Freeport. You can provide feedback by leaving a comment.

Portland Peninsula Transit Study passes City Council Unanimously

Last night, Portland's City Council voted unanimously to adopt the Peninsula Transit Study into the city's Comprehensive Plan.

The City now has an action plan focused on reducing the need for parking lots and garages downtown and improving our transit, walking, and bicycling infrastructure. Here's a link to the list of priorities (PDF file).

Now that the Study is a part of the Comprehensive Plan, we also have a powerful legal barrier to Augusta's attempts to pave over our city with unneccessary highway lanes. The Study specifically states that Portland will better manage traffic in our city and ultimately reduce the number of cars coming downtown, because we simply can't afford to widen local streets and expand parking garages for more car commuters. Instead, we should be investing more money in better bus service, which is a fraction of the cost of new highway lanes.

This contradicts Augusta's rationale for building new lanes on I-295, Veterans Bridge, and elsewhere. Maine's Sensible Transportation Policy Act states that the Maine DOT's projects must be consistent with local comprehensive plans. Now that the Transit Study and its goals are part of Portland's Comprehensive Plan, we have a very strong legal argument for throwing cold water on Augusta's asphalt fantasies.

Will the Maine DOT, in its financially weakened state, risk an expensive lawsuit that will force it to divert more of its dwindling gas tax revenue towards better regional bus service, at the expense of its close friends in the sand and gravel lobby? I bet they will, and I'm looking forward to it!

Read last night's success story at the Maine League of Young Voters blog. The League was fantastic in orchestrating grassroots support for this, and I'm looking forward to working with them more as we get the Study's recommendations implemented.

The Council also heard the first (of two) reading of several zoning amendments that would reduce parking requirements and promote more walkable development in the city's off-peninsula neighborhood commercial zones, in places like Rosemont, Woodfords and Morrill's Corner, and North Deering. While not strictly a Transit Study recommendation, these changes are certainly in the spirit of the Transit Study, and they deserve to pass when the Council meets again.

Planning Board Endorses Transit Study Recommendations and Parking Reductions

Unfortunately, last night's meeting went on way too late for me to stick around. But thanks in part to those of you who wrote in your comments, the Planning Board did decide to endorse the Peninsula Transit Study and sent it on to the full Council to incorporate it into the City's comprehensive plan. Hooray!

The Board also endorsed a few zoning amendments that will loosen and reduce the city's parking requirements in mixed-use business zones off the peninsula - mainly along major roads like Forest Avenue and Washington Ave. in North Deering. The previous zoning basically required huge parking lots to go along with any new development, which meant that we mostly got a bunch of new strip malls in those neighborhoods in the past 30 years. With any luck, these changes should open up those areas to more walkable infill development.

More City Hall business

Unfortunately I was unable to attend last night's meeting in South Portland. But from what I hear so far, it was a success: the airport and the state have agreed that an expanded runway and a bike/ped trail can coexist along the edge of Long Creek.

The city of South Portland has hired an engineering firm to draft a preliminary plan for connecting the new trail with the planned bike lanes and shared sidewalk that are slated to be built on the replacement Veterans Bridge. According to the Forecaster's report, that study could be finished in the next three weeks, which would give plenty of time for the designers of the new Veterans Bridge to adjust their plans accordingly.

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In other news, there's going to be another important meeting this evening in Portland's City Hall, when the Planning Board holds a public hearing and a vote on whether to incorporate the new Peninsula Transit Study into the city's Comprehensive Plan.

The Public Hearing starts at 6:45 PM. They have to review prior decisions and one other contentious agenda item before they get to the transit study, probably around 7:30 or so.

Just to be clear, they're only voting tonight on whether to incorporate the study into the Comp Plan. Implementing specific recommendations, like unbundling parking costs from your rent, would come later. This vote just provides the city planning staff a go-ahead to start working on those specific ordinances. Here's an outline of what the study is proposing.

The Board is also going over some amendments to the city's zoning codes that would, among other things, reduce parking requirements in certain off-peninsula mixed-use zones (like the Forest Avenue corridor) to one parking space for every new unit of housing. Currently, new homes built off the peninsula require 2 new parking spaces - a requirement that makes the construction of new middle-class housing unfeasible in most cases. These amendments are the third item on the agenda, and here's a link to a summary of them.

It would be great to get a good turnout to demonstrate public support for the Transit Study and its recommendations, which would lower the cost of living significantly for those of us who don't drive all the time.

If you can't make it, you can send written comments to Barbara Barhydt, Development Review Services Manager: bab@portlandmaine.gov

Previously on Rights of Way:

Transit Study Public Forum (July 2008)
Study Recommendations Being Implemented at Maine Medical Center (July 2008)
How to Turn A Parking Lot into $1 Million: The Economic Opportunities of Parking Deregulation (August 2008)

TONIGHT: Come to South Portland to support a bike/ped connection across Long Creek

As regular readers should be aware, next year's reconstruction of Veterans' Memorial Bridge between the West End of Portland and the Ligonia neighborhood of South Portland will include a 12' wide shared sidewalk, plus a 6' wide shoulder for bicycles.

It's going to be a valuable new connection, but in terms of linking the huge employment areas of western South Portland to the Portland peninsula, there's still a missing link: there's still no safe way for bikes and pedestrians to cross Interstate 295 in South Portland (the Maine DOT's botched reconstruction of Exit 3 in South Portland two summers ago destroyed the only safe crossing point of I-295 for bikes and pedestrians: now, Redbank schoolchildren have to cross 12 high-speed freeway ramps and go under three dark underpasses on their way to elementary school. Thanks, Augusta).

Anyhow, South Portland activists have been working hard to create a new, safer connection across I-295 and Long Creek. The proposed Long Creek bike/ped bridge (mapped above) would connect the Redbank and Brickhill neighborhoods of South Portland directly to the new Veterans Bridge bicycle and pedestrian paths. By this routing, the bike trip between the Old Port and the Maine Mall would be transformed from a 6-mile trip along stressful streets like Outer Congress or Broadway, to a 5-mile trip along low-traffic neighborhood streets and dedicated bike paths.

It would also open up new access to employment and housing for car-free or one-car households on both sides of the harbor: National Semiconductor would become an hour's walk (about 3 miles) from the West End's affordable housing complexes, for instance. The new Mercy Hospital campus on the Fore River would become an easy, 2 mile bike ride from Brickhill and Redbank (which would be about a 20 minute ride at an easy, no-sweat pace).

The only obstacle to this happening is the publicly-owned Portland "International" Jetport, which is objecting to the new bike/ped connection due to its long-range plans to extend a runway nearby. However, it's not clear why a bike path along Long Creek couldn't coexist with a longer runway, especially since numerous other cities have roads or trails around their airports.

The South Portland City Council is holding an important meeting this evening to determine whether or not the Jetport should be allowed to expand without also providing this important bike/ped connection. Here's the announcement from Shay Bellas of the South Portland Land Trust:

The South Portland Land Trust is making our vision for bike/ped bridge over Long Creek a reality. But we can't achieve the dream without you. As you know, the proposed span has tremendous implications for improving our quality of life and commuting options.

Can it be done? — YES
Will it be done? — Perhaps
We NEED your support this Monday night, July 13
from 6:30 - 8:00 pm.

All the stakeholders involved are poised to embrace the vision.

The next step is up to you.

We need you to help us show the South Portland City Council how the bridge is, in the words of one urban planner, "a game changer" for the greater South Portland area. The best way to do that is for you, your colleagues, friends and neighbors to attend:

The South Portland City Council workshop
This Monday, July 13 from 6:30 - 8:00 p.m.
South Portland Community Center
21 Nelson Rd

Here's a map to the meeting. If you plan to bike there, take the Highland Avenue bike route: from Portland, cross the Casco Bay Bridge, take a right at the end, then take the first left onto Anthoine St. next to the Public Safety building. At the end of Anthoine, turn right on Highland. The community center is behind the high school, just past the oil tanks.