Brunswick Maine Street Station, or Brunswick station, is a multi-modal, multi-use

real estate development Real estate development, or property development, is a business process, encompassing activities that range from the renovation and re-lease of existing buildings to the purchase of raw Real Estate, land and the sale of developed land or parcels ...

Brunswick, Maine Brunswick is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States. The population was 21,756 at the 2020 United States Census. Part of the Portland-South Portland-Biddeford metropolitan area, Brunswick is home to Bowdoin College, the Bowdoin Intern ...

. Located on Maine Street, it consists of commercial offices, service centers, healthcare, retail, restaurants, theater and residential space. Brunswick Station is also a

transportation hub A transport hub is a place where passengers and cargo are exchanged between vehicles and/or between transport modes. Public transport hubs include railway stations, rapid transit stations, bus stops, tram stops, airports and ferry slips. F ...

for city

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...

es,

taxis A taxis (; ) is the movement of an organism in response to a stimulus such as light or the presence of food. Taxes are innate behavioural responses. A taxis differs from a tropism (turning response, often growth towards or away from a stimulu ...

, and

passenger trains In rail transport, a train (from Old French , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles that run along a railway track and transport people or freight. Trains are typically pulled or pushed by locomotives (often know ...

. The development is split into two parts, the "West" and "East" sides (West and East of Union Street respectively). The west side will consist mostly of residential apartments and homes, along with some retail and commercial office space. The east side consists of mostly retail and commercial office space, along with some apartments. The east side is also the location of the passenger train station. This development was built on the vacant lots surrounding the

railroad junction A junction, in the context of rail transport, is a place at which two or more rail routes converge or diverge. This implies a physical connection between the tracks of the two routes (assuming they are of the same gauge), provided by ''points'' ( ...

between

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

, Lewiston, Augusta, and Rockland.

History

The first steps of the project began on August 20, 1998, when the Town of Brunswick purchased the land that the development is on for $655,000. Not until 2004 (four years after the '' Downeasters Boston-Portland service began) did the town begin to consider creating a commercial development around a train station. On May 28, 2008, the planning board approved the final plan for Maine Street Station. The plan, developed by JHR Development of Maine, was submitted on January 15, 2008. The current plan was scaled down from the original proposal. Ground was broken for the station on October 18, 2008. A branch of the

Bowdoin College Bowdoin College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine. When Bowdoin was chartered in 1794, Maine was still a part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The college offers 34 majors and 36 minors, as well as several joint eng ...

bookstore opened in one of the buildings constructed as part of phase I of the development on October 30, 2009. Construction of Building Three (connected to the platform) was completed in 2009, along with site work and preparation for the other buildings, including Building Four, which hosts the train station. In December 2010, construction began on Building Four (designed by Gawron Turgeon Architects, and built by Wright Ryan Construction).

Mid Coast Hospital Mid Coast Hospital is located in Brunswick, Maine Brunswick is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States. The population was 21,756 at the 2020 United States Census. Part of the Portland-South Portland-Biddeford metropolitan area, B ...

's Primary Care & Walk-In Clinic is the anchor tenant in this development. On January 28, 2010, the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority received approval for a $35 million grant from the federal government to fund track and signal upgrades for the Portland-Brunswick line.

Pan Am Railways Pan Am Railways, Inc. (PAR) is a subsidiary of CSX Corporation that operates Class II regional railroads covering northern New England from Mattawamkeag, Maine, to Rotterdam Junction, New York. Pan Am Railways is primarily made up of former Clas ...

began work on the line in spring 2010.

Passenger train station

The station serves as a terminus for

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

's ''Downeaster'' service. The station is staffed by volunteers. In 2012, Amtrak built a longer high-level platform in preparation for the extension of ''Downeaster'' service. Service to Freeport and Brunswick began on November 1, 2012.

Maine Eastern Railroad Maine Eastern Railroad was a railroad that operated in coastal Maine, between Brunswick and Rockland, on the former Maine Central Rockland Branch rail line.. Maine Eastern passenger trains connected with the Amtrak '' Downeaster'' passenger tr ...

operated passenger service between Brunswick and Rockland from 2004 to 2015. Maine Eastern used the open lot on Cedar Street prior to the construction of the first phase of Maine Street Station, when it began boarding passengers from a portable platform at the beginning of the 2010 season.

References

External links

Brunswick Station
– Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority *
Brunswick Station development web site
{{Amtrak Maine stations Amtrak stations in Maine Buildings and structures in Brunswick, Maine Transportation buildings and structures in Cumberland County, Maine Stations along Boston and Maine Railroad lines Maine Central Railroad stations Maine Eastern Railroad Railway stations in the United States opened in 2012