SLOWLY THEY LEARN.

Passenger Rail north of Boston continues to catch on.  Although there's no longer excursion service from Brunswick to Rockland on the former Maine Eastern, the Amtrak service between Boston and Brunswick will be getting a servicing facility at Brunswick, and now there are people at Augusta and Waterville who would like to get on the train.

“The people in Lewiston and Auburn already have money to look at this,” [Maine Rail Group spokesman Richard] Rudolph said. “We’re better off having a more focused group look at train service to Augusta and beyond, maybe to Bangor, and to Rockland, too, if they want.”

He said he’s not interested in pitting communities interested in rail service against each other.

We're still a long way from the mid-day Boston and Bangor Flying Yankee via Lewiston with through cars for or from Rockland switched at Portland let alone Aroostook County cars interchanged at Northern Maine Junction, and the shopper-friendly Bangor and Boston Pine Tree via Augusta and Brunswick.  And a Washington and Bangor East Wind might be a dream too far.

And yet,  we have people seriously discussing extensions of Amtrak service to locations that have been freight service only for over half a century.