Patricia Quinn participated in a panel titled “The Track Ahead – Economic Development and Revitalization by Rail,” at the North Carolina DOT 2024 Transportation Summit in Greensboro, NC on May 21 to showcase how the Downeaster has been a key component to successful transit-oriented development and economic growth in station communities.
Through Ride With Me, transportation partners can coordinate and ride their route with older adults, people with disabilities, people of color, and/or individuals with lower incomes as an opportunity for those riders to share their experience, educate decision-makers about transportation barriers, and offer creative ideas to improve infrastructure or processes. NNEPRA was happy to participate for the second year in a row.
NNEPRA’s Manager of Passenger Services, Brian Beeler, and Grant Program & Compliance Specialist, Catherine Davidson, were joined by a visually impaired passenger. This passenger shared first-hand insight of her experience navigating public transportation in the region and beyond.
NNEPRA staff was pleased to hear that she regularly uses the Downeaster service to travel to Boston, and feels comfortable and confident navigating the train independently. Staff learned about features that work well (i.e., booking tickets through the Amtrak app, audio queues for upcoming stops, web-based information that is compatible with screen reader technology, etc.) and areas of potential improvement. NNEPRA looks forward to participating in the Ride With Me program, and similar programs, in the future.
NNEPRA has won FIRST PLACE in the American Public Transportation Association’s 2024 AdWheel Awards in ‘Best Marketing and Communication to Increase Ridership or Sales – Comprehensive Campaign’ category.
Our Entry Titled: NEXT STOP: Record-breaking ridership on the Amtrak Downeaster was voted on by a selected panel and chosen as the First Place Winner. Entry for this award was created by providing concept strategy, creative executions, and a detailed look at our campaign results in a visual representation compiled with a series of essay questions where we could further walk the judges through our target audiences, campaign objectives, challenges and of course, very successful results.
NNEPRA’s Marketing Director, Taylor Belanger, who spearheads all Marketing Initiatives for the Amtrak Downeaster walks us through the campaign’s framework below.
The primary objective of this campaign was to exceed FY2019 ridership and revenue figures and reintroduce the Amtrak Downeaster brand. Secondary objectives were to produce cost effective dynamic ads that could be customized and consistently updated in market to meet the evolving needs of our target audiences and develop content strategies from the market research that identified three core reasons why passenger select the Amtrak Downeaster: Value, Amenities and Destination Experiences.
Prior to 2020, the Amtrak Downeaster had a robust marketing presence that included year-round paid media and grassroots outreach from Maine to Boston. Ridership and revenue goals were regularly exceeded. Post pandemic, both our brand awareness and ridership/revenues were negatively impacted and slow to recover. Driven by the need to return ridership and revenues to pre-pandemic numbers, we tasked our new advertising agency Blaze Partners to identify untapped ridership potential and to develop a customer-focused, fully integrated campaign to maximize visibility through paid and owned channels such as the Downeaster website, paid social, search, pre-roll, programmatic, broadcast, and radio.
Through a combination of metrics, we have been able to attribute a measurable return from our “Next Stop:” campaign. With record-breaking ridership and revenue wrapping up both Q3 and Q4 of 2023. These include 6.1 million impressions across campaign channels, 153,000 clicks to the Downeaster website, 78,000 conversions. Website traffic was up 8% in Q4 YoY. Paid media continues to drive over 20% of all traffic to the website. Session time tracked on the website also improved by 150% with an average of 5 minutes spent on the Downeaster website.
The success of this initial campaign concept proved to be strong and had legs to grow and flex with market trends and insights taken from top performing placements. This campaign continues to lead our paid media into FY25 where we plan to introduce the next phase of NEXT STOP: _____.
NNEPRA is proud of the success of this campaign, and expresses gratitude to our agency of record, Blaze Partners, for their continued dedication to the success of the Amtrak Downeaster.
– Taylor Belanger, Marketing Director, NNEPRA
The Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority (NNEPRA) has been successful in securing both the Federal-State Grant and the Corridor ID Grant.
The Fed-State Grant, in partnership with CSX Transportation, will fund track-related upgrades to maintain reliability for the Amtrak Downeaster. The Corridor ID Grant will assist with planning and set the stage for future improvements to the service. Read more from the Portland Press Herald and from our partners at Amtrak.
November 2023- St Laurent & Son Construction completed rehabilitation of the access road and construction of a switch access road at the Brunswick Layover Facility (BLF).
January 9, 2024: The FY24 Fare Plan was implemented.
October 23, 2023: The Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority (NNEPRA) Board of Directors approved the FY24 Fare Plan.
September 19, 2023: The Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority (NNEPRA) proposed a fare increase for the Amtrak Downeaster rail service between Brunswick, Maine and Boston, MA. A copy of the FY24 Fare Plan is available here. Public comment was accepted through October 9, 2023.
NNEPRA has awarded Blazed Partners a Yarmouth-based advertising/digital marketing agency the #23-Advertising Firm-003 contract. The collaboration aims to enhance the marketing and promotion of the Downeaster, elevate its brand presence and increase overall ridership.
The NNEPRA team expressed their confidence in selecting Blaze Partners, recognizing the agency’s expertise and shared values. “Blaze Partners demonstrates an understanding of our brand and a vision for its growth,” said Taylor Belanger, Marketing Director at NNEPRA. “Their commitment to sustainability and community engagement aligns perfectly with our mission to provide safe, efficient, and environmentally friendly transportation options. We believe that this partnership will bring tremendous value to our passengers and help us achieve our goals for growth.”
Blaze Partners will collaborate closely with NNEPRA to develop comprehensive marketing campaigns spanning traditional and digital platforms. Blaze brings significant expertise in effective storytelling and engaging content creation that will play a vital role in showcasing the Downeaster travel experience and fostering connections between the diverse communities along the route. “We’re excited to embark on this journey together,” said Jim Hauptman, Blaze’s managing partner. “In a relatively short time, the Downeaster has already become an iconic Maine brand — one we hope to strengthen and further develop through our marketing efforts.”
January, 2023- Exciting progress is being made on the Wells Area Improvement Project. The CSX Rail Train arrived at CPF 228 on January 5th, carrying 115lb continuously welded rail that will become a two-mile siding extension between Wells, Maine and North Berwick, Maine. What does this mean for the future of Amtrak Downeaster? Once the project is complete, these elements will improve reliability and schedule flexibility of both the Amtrak Downeaster and freight trains and will eventually support the addition of a 6th daily Downeaster round-trip between Wells and Brunswick, Maine.
Click to learn more about the project: https://www.nnepra.com/project/wells-area-improvement-project-2/
The Amtrak Downeaster began providing daily passenger rail service between Maine and Boston on December 15, 2001, twenty-one (21) years ago today. In just the past 12 months, the Downeaster has transported more than 467,000 passengers (a 35% increase over the previous year) including commuters, students traveling to or from college, children, senior citizens, sports fans, medical travelers, and tourists. More than 8.4 million riders have traveled on the Downeaster since service began.
“Despite significant challenges during the pandemic, Amtrak Downeaster ridership has rebounded to 93% of 2019 levels. The Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority (NNEPRA) continues to make service improvements and infrastructure investments in the Downeaster, which maintains one of the highest customer satisfaction ratings in the nation.” said Patricia Quinn, NNEPRA Executive Director.
Construction continues on the Wells Area Improvement Project, which broke ground one year ago, and will lead to additional Downeaster service between Brunswick and Wells in 2025. The $23M Project, managed by NNEPRA, is funded in partnership with the Federal Railroad Administration, the Maine Department of Transportation, and CSX Transportation.
Special Travel Promotions put in place to Celebrate Downeaster Anniversary
The Amtrak Downeaster is celebrating 21 years of service by offering special discounted fares for travel during January 2023. “If you already love the Downeaster, or if you’ve haven’t ridden yet, these $20 Round-Trip fares make January the perfect time to take the train!” said Taylor Belanger, NNEPRA Marketing Director.
$20 round-trip ($10 one-way) fares for travel between Brunswick, Maine and Boston, Massachusetts or any station in between will be available for sale beginning Thursday, December 15, 2022 and are valid for travel January 1, 2023 through January 31, 2023. Reservations for these discounted fares must be purchased 3 days in advance of travel. Reference promotion code v520. For more information visit https://amtrakdowneaster.com/deals-discounts/deals/january-sale/.
On October 25th, 2022, the NNEPRA Team welcomed members of the WTS Maine Chapter to experience the Amtrak Downeaster firsthand, network on board and receive a personalized tour of the Brunswick Layover facility.
WTS Maine is a division of Women’s Transportation Seminar, an international organization dedicated to advancing women in transportation through professional development. Maine is one of 79 chapters continuing this mission to support individual career advancement through various networking and educational opportunities.
Boarding in Portland on Downeaster train 683 attendees headed North at 2:25pm to Brunswick. Joined onboard by Patricia Quinn, NNEPRA’s Executive Director, Natalie Bogart, NNEPRA’s Deputy Director, and Taylor Belanger, NNEPRA’s Marketing Director, plans for future station developments were shared with attendees.
After arriving in Brunswick, the WTS Maine Chapter received a tour of the Brunswick layover facility lead by Jim Russell, NNEPRA’s Special Projects Manager and Gene Sougstad, Amtrak’s Road Foreman. While the construction and design of the facility lead the discussion, members rotated in asking questions and sharing a genuine enthusiasm for the infrastructure of this critical facility and its role in the Amtrak Downeaster’s service.
As the group boarded back onto the train, food and beverages were available from the Downeaster café, and the networking continued as the group made its way back to Portland. Opportunities to host the WTS Maine Chapter are appreciated and we look forward to having them back again.
