Portland (Maine) Train Stations
Portland , the largest city in the state of Maine , has several passenger and freight stations .
history
The first station was opened on November 21, 1842 on Canal Street, later Commercial Street in the south of the city by the Portland, Saco and Portsmouth Railroad (PS&P). The railway crossed the Fore River on a wooden yoke bridge , on the northern bank of which was the station. The Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railroad (from 1848 on India Street) and the York and Cumberland Railroad of Maine (from 1851 on Preble Street) built their own terminal stations in the east and north of the city. While PS&P and York & Cumberland had built their lines in standard gauge (1435 mm), Atlantic & St. Lawrence chose the colonial track (1676 mm).
The first connection line between the terminus of York & Cumberland and PS&P was opened in 1851 by the Portland and Kennebec Railroad (P&K), whose passenger trains, however, initially ended in York & Cumberland station. This line was closed in 1861 and replaced by an extension of the P&K line from Deering Junction south to Commercial Street. It was not until around 1875 that passenger trains also used this route. Due to the different gauge of the Atlantic & St. Lawrence, now absorbed into the Grand Trunk Railway , had no connections from India Street Station to any other station.
From 1869 the trains of the Portland and Ogdensburg Railway drove towards the White Mountains . The Boston and Maine Railroad completed their own route to Portland in 1873. The trains of both companies also ended at Commercial Street station. In 1874 the Grand Trunk switched its main line and connecting tracks to other railways could finally be built. In the same year, the former York & Cumberland, now known as the Portland and Rochester Railroad (P&R), extended its line along the Back Cove , a bay, to the Grand Trunk route .
So now six railway companies served the city of Portland and used three different passenger stations. The ever increasing volume of traffic finally led to the establishment of the Portland Union Station Railroad Company in 1887 , which was to take over the routes in the city area and to build a new central station, the Portland Union Station . The new station was opened in 1888. He was on St. John Street on the route of Portland & Kennebec, which is now part of the Maine Central Railroad . However, the Grand Trunk Railway's trains continued to terminate on India Street. The other railroad companies let their trains enter the new main station, the Portland & Rochester only from 1891. The Portland Union Station Railroad Company took over all railroad lines in the city of Portland from their respective previous owners. The stations on Commercial Street and Preble Street were converted into freight yards.
Around 1916, the Boston and Maine Railroad, which had since bought PS&P and P&R, shut down the old yoke bridge over the Fore River. The freight trains that ran the old PS&P main line now turned south of Portland onto the Boston & Maine main line crossing there. Local passenger traffic on the old PS&P route ended in 1926; only express trains ran on the route until it was closed in November 1944. The last passenger trains ran on the former P&R route in 1932, but freight traffic was maintained until 1961. In 1958, passenger traffic ended in the direction of the White Mountains, in 1960 on the Maine Central Railroad, in 1965 in the direction of Boston and in 1967 finally on the former Grand Trunk Railroad, now the Canadian National Railway . The Union Station building fell victim to the wrecking ball in 1961, and India Street train station suffered the same fate in 1966.
After the bridge of the former Grand Trunk line over the Back Cove burned down in January 1984, the line from the Commercial Street freight yard to the East Deering freight yard was shut down. The Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad Museum has been located on the site of the former India Street station since 1993, and has built a museum railway with a gauge of 610 millimeters on the route of the Grand Trunk route.
From 1993 to 1997, a ski express ran to Bethel from the East Deering Grand Trunk freight yard, where a specially built platform was built, only in winter . Regular passenger traffic has only been back in Portland since December 15, 2001. Since that day, the Amtrak Downeaster has been operating several times a day to Boston . The terminus was rebuilt and is located on the former Portland & Ogdensburg route at Thompsons Point Road.
List of passenger stations
| Name / location | opening | Passenger traffic up | Shutdown | Railway companies | Todays use |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Commercial Street (formerly Canal Street) |
November 21, 1842 | 1894 | in operation |
1842-1900: PS&P |
Freight depot |
| Deering Junction (formerly Westbrook) |
February 8, 1851 | 1960 | in operation |
1851-1865: Y&C |
Freight depot |
| East Deering | July 20, 1848 | 1997 | in operation |
1848–1853: A&SL |
Freight depot |
| India Street | July 20, 1848 | 1967 | 1984 |
1848–1853: A&SL |
Railway Museum |
| Preble Street | February 8, 1851 | 1891 | approx. 2000 |
1851-1865: Y&C |
shut down |
|
Portland Transportation Center (Thompsons Point Road) |
December 15, 2001 | in operation | in operation | since 2001: Amtrak | Passenger station |
|
Union Station (St. John Street) |
1888 | 1965 | 1965 |
1888-1900: PS&P |
no more operating point, line still in operation |
| Woodfords (Demand Breakpoint) (P&K) |
1861 | 1960 | 1960 | no more operating point, line still in operation |
|
| Woodfords (P&R) |
1851 | 1911 | 1911 | shut down |
attachment
literature
- Robert M. Lindsell: The Rail Lines of Northern New England. Branch Line Press, Pepperell, MA 2000, ISBN 0-942147-06-5 .
- Janet Greenstein Potter: Great American Railroad Stations. New York: Preservation Press, 1996, ISBN 0-471-14389-8 .