Quinn-spin and Victim-Blaming

Since April 2011, when she introduced the plan to build a layover facility in Brunswick, Patricia Quinn, Executive Direct of NNEPRA, has been creating expectations in Brunswick that it will enjoy the economic benefits of many Downeaster trains per day.  Most recently, Quinn has been quoted as asserting as stating that Brunswick could enjoy as many as seven trips per day. Some in Brunswick eagerly embrace the prospect.  Town Councilor Margo Knight, for example, has stated that more trips are necessary to reap the full economic benefits of the Downeaster.

Brunswick should understand that these promises of many trips should never have been made.  The Downeaster plan never included more than two.  In July of last year, the Amtrak Downeaster website stated that “two of the Downeaster’s five daily round trips will operate between Boston’s North Station and Brunswick along with a third roundtrip consisting of an early morning departure and late evening return between Portland and Brunswick.”  The August 2010 Downeaster Expansion Handout also lists the number of Brunswick to Boston round trips as two.

Where did these extra trips come from?  On what basis were they offered?

They were made to help sell Brunswick on the maintenance and layover facility.  A facility in Brunswick would mean extra trips at the start and end of the day.  NNEPRA presented Brunswick with this prospect when it introduced the possibility of the layover facility. It did so, though, before doing its homework.  Patricia Quinn put the cart before the horse.  NNEPRA had insufficient funds committed to build the facility, and certainly funds insufficient to build in the mitigation measures necessary to protect neighbors from noise, vibration, and pollution effects.  Still, she held out the prospect of extra trains.  NNEPRA had not conducted a methodologically rigorous site selection study.  Yet still it held out the prospect of many trains per day.  NNEPRA never reached out to the community it intended to impact.  Yet still it held out the prospect of many trains per day. 

In short, NNEPRA had no business creating expectations in Brunswick that it could not deliver on.  And the town had no business accepting these promises without even questioning their basis.

It has all worked out nicely for NNEPRA.  Now many in Brunswick have become accustomed to expecting five to seven trains per day.  When on November 3 NNEPRA was compelled to admit that it did not have the funds to construct the facility, many in town blamed neighbors for raising the costs on NNEPRA.

Excuse me?  That’s like blaming victims of robbery for raising the costs of police service.  That’s like blaming patients who need medication for driving up costs for pharmacy companies.  Sure, life would be great for NNEPRA if it didn’t have to worry about the silly needs of neighbors it impacts.  But when you seek to place a three-bay train garage two hundred feet from peoples’ homes, you can pretty much expect that they’ll need mitigation.  Wouldn’t it have been wiser to simply start with costs of mitigation?  Or, wiser yet, plan the facility for a site where so much mitigation would not be necessary?  

NNEPRA should have started first by conducting a rigorous site selection process, which factored in human impacts as much as operational parameters.  It should have included all stakeholders, including residents and abutters of each site.  And it should have secured all funding necessary before promising the town expanded Downeaster service.

That it did not speaks volumes about how little NNEPRA respects local communities and local processes.