Latest News

From our friends at the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority:

The Amtrak Downeaster has expanded its carry-on bike program and is now accepting bicycles from all Downeaster stations in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

Newly installed custom-designed luggage racks that convert to bike racks at the end of each car now make it possible to roll bikes on board from any Downeaster station, then secure and store them on the train.  Previously, bikes had to be stored in a special car, restricting access to only a few stations.  Now, standard full-size bicycles may be carried on from any Downeaster station and stored in the designated racks. Because Bicycles are hung vertically by their back wheels using special bike tire hooks to ensure safety, the front wheel, panniers, and bags must be removed.

Bicycle space is limited to four bikes per train, so advance reservations for bikes is required. A $3 to $8 one-way bicycle fee applies.

NNEPRA has been working to improve bike access on Downeaster trains for years. This project could not have been accomplished without the continued support of the bicycle community and the partnership with Amtrak to modify the current train equipment.

A 25-page Maine Rail-Trail Plan 2020-2030 has been released and is available for download and review.

The plan was developed by the Maine Trails Coalition (MTC), which draws together multiple Maine interest groups and citizens in a coordinated statewide effort to expand, connect, and maintain Maine’s network of off-road trails. MTC’s interests and participants span conservation, outdoor recreation, transportation, economic development, community enrichment, ecotourism, public health and fitness, climate and the environment, among others. A particular focus of MTC’s work is on regional trail connectivity.

The Maine Rail-Trail Plan calls for the construction of thirteen specific rail-trail projects over the next decade, and at least five prospective projects for development over the following decade. Each of these projects connects with, extends, and regionalizes an existing multi-use trail infrastructure. Collectively, these eighteen projects would add roughly 250 miles of inter-connected off-road trails, transforming the Maine communities they serve.

Portions of the Eastern Trail are listed both as an existing rail-trail, as well as a key part of the construction of thirteen specific rail-trail projects called for over the next decade.

The Maine Rail-Trail Plan is a living document that the Maine Trails Coalition plans to refine over time in consultation with local communities, regional authorities, state agencies, and the many interest groups concerned with rails and trails throughout Maine.

If you would like to be a part of creating an active transportation network that preserves an inter-urban train corridor, while creating healthy and connected communities throughout the state of Maine through a biking, walking, and running rail-trail system, please contact mainetrailscoalition@gmail.com. You can also sign up to receive MTC updates on all trail topics.

[Ed. Note. One of the three women this article features is our own Carole Brush, the Executive Director of the Eastern Trail Management District. Carole’s story appears last in the article]

Maine Women Magazine July 2020 |  By R. Cook

Kristine Keeney, Carrie Kinne, and Carole Brush are three Maine women who find themselves in an unexpected position that presents great opportunity and enormous challenges, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The three women manage three of Maine’s most popular trail networks from northern Maine to York County. The trails are being used by record numbers of people who crave outdoor recreation as an escape from the daily stress and anxiety generated by the coronavirus. But those record numbers also present difficult challenges to ensure everyone’s safety in the new normal of social distancing.

Kristine never thought she would ever see a situation like the one that has unfolded across the state. She serves as the New England coordinator of the East Coast Greenway Alliance. The 32-year-old lives in Greenwood near Bethel in the Western Maine mountains and is looking forward to marrying her fiancé, Jake. She originally hails from the New Haven, Connecticut, area, but Maine has always held a special place in her heart.

“I started coming to Maine in 2008 or so. It was actually for skiing in a ski club at Sunday River,” Kristine recalls. When she attended graduate school in 2013, she was living in Portland and commuting to Boston via the Downeaster. Her goal was to become the city’s bicycle coordinator.

She worked in that role for a few years and increased the bicycle network by creating more bicycle parking at a time when bicyclists wanted to have more freedom to share the road with motor vehicle traffic. “I was always into bicycle/pedestrian infrastructure.” She later accepted a planner position in Vermont for three towns near the Sugarbush Ski Resort area. She worked on a lot of trail projects in the Green Mountain State, mapped out trails for the whole region, and created user-friendly map kiosks. In July 2018, Kristine moved back to Maine when her present job was available.

She now oversees a trail network that extends from Calais to Rhode Island as part of a system that extends from Maine all the way to Key West, Florida. Maine has 340 miles, and the New Hampshire Seacoast has 17 miles, followed by another 145 miles in Massachusetts and 50 miles in Rhode Island.

In her role, Kristine works with smaller Maine trail groups like the Kennebec Estuary in Bath and the Eastern Trail Alliance in Saco that have direct management over their specific trail systems. Kristine helps them work with regional planners, local governments, and utility companies to design trails, maintain existing trail standards, and add new trails. Kristine spends a great deal of time advocating for trail funding in Augusta and keeps her trail part ners updated on important rule changes such as the COVID-19 guidelines issued by Gov. Janet Mills and
the Maine Centers for Disease Control.

Kristine is an avid biker herself. “I fell in love with it because of the flexibility and convenience, as well as the health benefits.” Biking can also help people enjoy a physical, outdoor activity while maintaining proper social distancing from others. “Biking is a great option to distance yourself from other people as well as having a great outlet for physical and mental health.”

She sees this new attention paid to biking as one of the strange benefits wrought by the current pandemic. After years of advocating for increased funding for trail networks throughout Maine and New England and spreading awareness about the health and environmental benefits of increased bicycle transportation, Kristine is seeing more people gravitate toward these causes. For example, trail use has tripled on Portland’s popular Back Cove Trail from March 2019 to March 2020, from 325 users per day to more than 1,000 daily users because of COVID-19, and that number will more than likely continue to climb as summer approaches.

As this trend unfolded, Kristine and other trail network managers were scrambling to educate trail users about the importance of social distancing. They want people to be mindful of the parking lots, for instance. If the lots are full, come back another day to use the trail, or pick a day when the weather is not as perfect, when fewer people will venture out.

“It’s a type of moving target when it comes to best practices,” Kristine said.

Maine trails are getting overwhelmed because, Kristine explains, there are more people from other communities who are traveling to different cities and towns to access those trails. Some communities have closed trail parking lots to traffic to limit access to hikers and bicyclists. When the state closed beaches and state coastal parks, that put more pressure on the existing trail network.

“It’s a situation that honestly none of us thought we would find ourselves in,” she said.

For Carrie Kinne, the executive director of the Kennebec Estuary, she and her volunteers already have their hands full striking the right balance between increased trail use and public health concerns. The Yarmouth resident oversees 30 miles of trails that include 12 preserves and 28 easements, including the latest one in Richmond.

Her trail network extends from Richmond down to West Bath and Dresden down to Georgetown. She said her group just celebrated its 30th anniversary. They have come a long way from the days when its founders were sitting around kitchen tables and first discussed protecting vast tracts of land to protect natural habitat and allow public enjoyment.

Carrie completely understands why so many people who may have never enjoyed the Kennebec Estuary’s trails are using them now. “There are things you think of when you think of Maine, like nature, the environment, and the landscape. If you are from Maine, you may take it for granted.”

Carrie is hopeful the trail scout program they started when COVID-19 really took off in Maine will pay dividends. The program allows people to share their observation about the trails. “It’s getting a lot of traction.” Trail scouts also report the activity they are seeing on the trail, as well as trail conditions, to serve as the estuary organization’s eyes. As a result, more people in the community feel vested and engaged in the Kennebec Estuary’s work.

Carrie said the estuary’s corps of volunteers will make sure the trails are nice and wide to accommodate the growing number of users they will see this summer. “There are going to be
busy times, but ultimately you try to get the message out there as best you can,” Carrie said. “There should be ample space for everybody out there.”

Carrie has also been vested in Maine’s environment and its position as a leader in preserving public lands. She is originally from Farmingdale and spent a great deal of her career in the healthcare industry before she joined the Kennebec Estuary. “Out of all the non-profit work that I’ve done, this is incredibly rewarding.”

Carrie has been married to Jack for 20 years and the couple have four stepchildren and seven grandchildren, all under age nine. The kids love exploring the trails as much as Carrie does.

Meanwhile, the situation in southern Maine could be more complex for Carole Brush. As the executive director of the Eastern Trail Management District in Saco since 2007, Carole has already seen trails like Scarborough Marsh get overwhelmed with users to the point where social distancing was impossible. Carole said a survey showed the number of Scarborough Marsh trail users increased from 4,000 in April 2019 to 12,000 this April. In May 2019, they saw 7,000 people use the same trail compared to a projected 21,000 people this May.

“Maybe the big benefit of all this is that people are getting out more and exercising more and are really taking advantage of what we have,” Carole believes. “The use of the trail has tripled from what it was a year ago.” In some ways, it’s a nice problem to have for trail advocates who are always looking for ways to extoll the trail network’s benefits. But like her colleagues Kristine and Carrie, Carole could never have foreseen a situation like this unfolding in 2020.

She has been with the Eastern Trail Management District (EMTD) since 2007. She wanted to live in Maine to be close to her family and become an Audubon Society registered guide for the Scarborough Marsh. Since her earliest years growing up in New Jersey, Carole has had a love affair with nature.

“From the time I was a child, going out to nature was always my go-to place,” she said. “Maybe the big benefit of all this is that people are getting out more and exercising more and are really taking advantage of what we have.” Carole studied land conservation when she attended Ramapo College in New Jersey and ended up splitting her time between Boulder, Colorado, and New York State for the next 10 years. “It was a pretty tough commute, but it was worth it.”

In New York, Carole led hikes and taught fitness classes at the Mohawk Preserve and the Mohawk Mountain House in the Hudson Valley region. Carole has five grandchildren and has been single for quite a while. “My work is a big part of my passion, to be out there on the trails and keep conserving land for trails.”

Carole said her volunteers will continue to post signage and utilize social media to spread the word about the importance of social distancing so everyone can enjoy the trails. They will also have trail ambassadors to guide people to stay six feet apart. More importantly, the public’s willingness to comply with the new normal will ensure the trails remain open.

Even as the COVID-19 pandemic dominates their attention, Carole said the ETMD is still working on three projects to expand and improve the existing trail network. One involves creating a 1.6-mile link between South Portland and Scarborough. The other two projects involve a three-mile stretch to connect Thornton Academy in Saco to Southern Maine Medical Center in Biddeford and an 18-mile stretch from Kennebunk near Alewives Road south all the way to South Berwick. The work to maintain and expand existing trail networks and to educate the public about how best they can enjoy them now is an ongoing process.

“It takes a village or several to build a trail,” Carole observes. It may also take several villages to keep the trails safe and accessible this summer and beyond.

[Eds. note: This article makes many references to the Eastern Tail Alliance’s Maine Lighthouse Ride and Bob Bowker, the founder of that ride and long time ETA Trustee and officer.]

Cycling advocates think a more bike-centric culture could take hold in Maine as a result of the pandemic.

By Deirdre Fleming, Staff Writer Maine Sunday Telegram. Published May 10, 2020

When Bob Bowker’s daughter, MacKenzie, asked for ideas on where to ride her bicycle in Maine this spring, he had an easy answer. Bowker, founder of the popular Maine Lighthouse Ride, suggested she try the southern portion of the 100-mile lighthouse route, where coastal views abound.

The expansive views of the Atlantic Ocean and rocky beaches in the Kennebunks delighted MacKenzie Bowker, a jewelry maker and bike tour guide.

“I’m trying to ride local,” MacKenzie Bowker said. “I wanted something along the water. It’s nice to have those views. (My boyfriend and I) took a couple of different roads just because they went closer to the water. There was slightly less traffic than normal. So we were able to cruise around and not have to worry about out-of-staters.”

Bowker is not alone in seeking out new bicycle routes at this time. Bike paths have been busy and crowded during the pandemic, so many cyclists are looking for other options, bike advocates say.

“I see a lot of riders out riding by themselves now,” said Victor Langelo, ride director for the Merrymeeting Wheelers Bicycle Club. “The group rides are not taking place, because it’s not socially responsible right now. But there are a lot of bikes on the roads.”

Resources are plentiful for cyclists wanting to explore new roadways…….

You can read the entire article online here

Welcome to spring on the Eastern Trail – the birds are singing, peepers are peeping and ticks are coming out of hiding.

Fortunately the trail is wide enough to accommodate trail users while keeping 6′ apart.  You can limit exposure to ticks by maintaining a similar distance from long grasses, undergrowth, marshes and wooded shrubs.

Please stay on the trail while maintaining this safe distance to minimize your chances. Wear light-colored clothing that is tucked in to further reduce exposure, And remember to check yourself AND your pet carefully after you get back home.

Here’s a pamphlet we have created with more information on how to be safe regarding ticks.

Take a look at this excellent “Week-A-Year” video put together and shared by Dave Read of the East Coast Greenway Alliance.

Nine years ago, riders started at the Canadian border in Calais, Maine and began a ride south along the 3000-mile East Coast Greenway. They rode for a week each year. For example, they biked the first year (2011) from Calais to Portland.

On Friday, November 15, 2019 a group of 40 cyclists plus support staff reached Key West, Florida, to wrap the final leg of the East Coast Greenway Alliance’s Week-A-Year (WAY) Tour.

In 2012 they traveled along the Eastern Trail,  and the brief ET segment (starting at 2:02 on the video) includes a nice aerial-drone-shot along the Scarborough Marsh.

The video is a collage of trip videos and photographs that includes an engaging narration about the yearly rides and the Greenway.

Dave Read lives in Massachusetts, is currently a member of the Greenway Council, and chaired the Board of Trustees of the East Coast Greenway Alliance from 2011 through 2015. He is also the Vice President of Ambulatory Care Operations and Medical Oncology at Dana–Farber Cancer Institute.

[Eds. note: This article addresses issues on segments of the East Coast Greenway in Maine, of which the Eastern Trail is a major segment.  It also addresses legislation currently being considered, LD 2124 – “An Act To Create the Rail Corridor Use Advisory Council Process.”  This bill’s passage will set up a process at the Maine Department of Transportation to allow it to consider other uses for rail corridors, such as trails, instead of them continuing to sit idle. It’s passage hopefully will help trails in Maine come to fruition in the future.]

A related article is here.  An advocacy page on LD 2124 can be found here]

By Douglas Rooks,  published March 11, 2020

Since its founding nearly 30 years ago, the East Coast Greenway has sought to create a 3,000-mile bicycle-pedestrian pathway from Key West, Florida, to Calais – a vision fully equal to the Appalachian Trail, whose terminus at Mount Katahdin has become the summit of hiking achievement for generations of outdoors enthusiasts.

Unlike the AT, the Greenway is designed to connect urban population centers, and to become as viable for commuting as shuttles, buses and commuter rails; one of its most successful segments is in the “Research Triangle” around Raleigh, North Carolina, where thousands of cyclists use it daily.

Portland became a focus early on, and was a launching point for an exploratory tour in 1994; a decade later, seven cyclists started from Calais and traveled the entire route in 55 days. Maine, with its relatively wide-open spaces, seems an easy sell for construction of a recreational pathway heavily used by tourists.

But that hasn’t been the case.

The Eastern Trail – which runs 29 miles from Kennebunk to South Portland and includes a highly visible bridge over the Maine Turnpike – is a designated Greenway segment. It follows an active underground natural gas pipeline built on an old railroad right of way, with full support from the pipeline owners.

In other areas, however, trail advocates have run into strong, and sometimes unstinting resistance from passenger rail enthusiasts, who insist that every rail and tie must remain in place – even on abandoned, often state-owned lines.

The crown jewel of potential trail commuter routes in greater Portland is the old St. Lawrence & Atlantic line that runs from downtown Portland across Back Cove, behind the B&M Baked Beans plant and then north to Yarmouth for nine miles. It parallels the Maine Central tracks that host the Amtrak Downeaster, and ended freight service in 2013. Yet suggestions for converting it to trail use remain embryonic.

The forces contending over the future of old rail lines were on full display March 5, during a hearing before the Legislature’s Transportation Committee on LD 2124, a governor’s bill to create a Rail Corridor Use Advisory Council.

Legislative impasse

The late-filed bill was the Department of Transportation’s attempt to resolve deadlocks over two bills concerning other Greenway segments: the Merrymeeting Trail, 25 miles from Topsham to Gardiner (LD 1141), and an extension of the Downeast Sunrise Trail, an 86-mile segment in Hancock and Washington counties, by another 15 miles, from Ayers Junction to the Greenway terminus in Calais.

Sponsors of those bills, Rep. Charlotte Warren, D-Hallowell, and Sen. Marianne Moore, R-Calais, urged adoption of the advisory council as a way of allowing the committee, as Warren put it, “to get out of the middle of the annual railroad/trail arguments.” She called it “the most comprehensive, fair and thorough process” she’s seen.

Moore talked about the positive impact of the Downeast Sunrise Trail – up to $1 million annually – for communities from Ellsworth to Machias that have few other economic opportunities. She said removing rails and rebuilding the railbed, fixing washouts and bridge failures, makes the return of rail service more likely; existing ties and rails would have to be replaced anyway.

Advocates emphasize that trails on state “railbanked” corridors are interim uses, and that – should trains prove feasible – must be relocated. Rep. Anne Perry, D-Calais, pointed to Denton, Texas, where such a trail was moved when a new freight line was opened.

Read the entire article online (Portland Phoenix) here.

[Eds. note: The Eastern Trail is featured in this local television spot starting at approx. 3:34 and ending about 6:10. The show covers both the Gap Tracks UNE wildlife study on the Eastern Trail, as well as the Close the Gap campaign. You can view the spot here.]

On this episode of “Total Maine with Steve Minich,” as work to complete another section of the Eastern Trail bike path gets underway, it’s given a University of New England professor the chance to study the local wildlife in an interesting way.

You can access the video here.

The program originally aired on February 22, 2020.

Mirage News, February 5, 2020

Noah Perlut, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Environmental Studies, recently met up with WMTW anchor Steve Minich in Scarborough to discuss the GapTracks project.

Perlut and students in his Terrestrial Wildlife class are studying the impact that connecting two sections of the Eastern Trail in Scarborough will have on wildlife in the area.

A 1.6-mile gap currently exists on the Eastern Trail, interrupting off-road travel. Work is expected to start soon to close the gap, including the construction of two bridges. The finished project will provide 16 continuous off-road miles reaching from Bug Light in South Portland to Downtown Saco.

Images and videos captured on eight motion-controlled cameras are providing insight into the secret lives of wildlife in the area.

“We know that there are animals here, but people don’t necessarily know how many species are here or how abundant the wildlife is in our backyard,” Perlut told WMTW.

Two of the cameras are set up where the trail currently exists and six are placed where the extension will be built. Students are constantly analyzing data collected from the cameras.

“An army of students go through these pictures day and night looking for what’s there and documenting what’s there so that we can understand the many years of data,” Perlut explained.

That data collected will be compared to data collected after the construction project is complete in order to document changes over time. The study is focused on the types of animals in the gap area, the time of year and day they are present, and the amount and type of use by humans.

The report will air again on a future episode of “Total Maine,” a program that airs on WMTW’s sister network CW on Saturday evenings.

You can view the WMTW coverage here (video).

Visit the GapTracks Facebook page here.