As we approach the last day of this year, we look back to what’s taken place during 2014. It was a busy year, on both offense and defense. We set new travel goals and continued to defend NNEPRA's Brunwick Layover Facility proposal which is the key to more service which will lead to increased ridership. 

In a time of special need, we received funds and moral support from many of you – and we sincerely thank you for that. We nevertheless continued to support passenger rail service throughout the region.

The Brunswick town engineer said at last night's Town Council meeting that the runoff from the Brunswick Layover Facility site would not connect to the town's storm water system - thus reducing the town's concern. In addition, he said that after reading reports on the DEP's website, the runoff before and after construction would appear to be unchanged. It was generally a positive assessment from the town engineer. 

In addition, the council voted last night to become a 'Municipal Observer' which will allow them to receive DEP updates on the Storm Water Runoff Permit issue while maintaining the right to intervene in the process if required in the future.

December 17th was to have been the 'drop dead' date for the DEP to issue their decision. Unfortunately, by calling for a public hearing on the permit, the clock has stopped. The town lawyer speculated that the hearing would focus only on the water runoff issue.