ON TO DOVER? Destination: Freedom reports on cooperation between New Hampshire and Massachusetts to extend commuter service to Plaistow, which is just over the border from Haverhill, the current outer end of service. Historically, the Boston and Maine ended its outer suburban service at Haverhill, with Plaistow and other communities Bostonside of Dover served by a few stopping trains on the Portland Division.

One of these days, the regional commuter train operators and Amtrak might think more carefully about interline ticketing. There's no reason some of the Portland trains, particularly those running during the rush hours, can't serve as expresses for the outer suburban commuters, and some of the Haverhill, or Plaistow, or Exeter trains, can't serve as feeders to the Portland trains, or when the service goes on to Freeport or Brunswick, to make convenient connections for shoppers. A single ticket, good on the entire route, will help. A Soviet department store is easier to deal with than the ordeal of buying tickets for Amtrak and for a commuter operator. In Boston and Chicago's Union Station, there are separate ticket agents for each carrier. On the other hand, for all the fragmentation of Britain's passenger train service, one ticket, good on any connecting carrier on any route, is all I had to carry to get from Manchester Airport to Telford Central.