Congratulations to Auburn Mayor Jonathan LaBonte for sensibly arranging inter-city motor coach service to Lewiston-Auburn. Passenger rail proponents may be disheartened, but his initiative solves a perceived need for scheduled public transportation at minimal cost.

The train is an exercise in extorting money from the many (taxpayers) to pay for the few who actually use it, confirmed by two years of experience with the “Downeaster” route extension to Freeport and Brunswick.

Its passenger count averages about 25 on two daily trains in each direction, rarely totaling more than a busload (51). Supporters now would supplement an original infrastructure investment of $38 million with a “service optimization” request for another $32 million to expand schedule frequency and construct a massive maintenance facility, the kind of wasteful outlay that could readily be eliminated from federal and state budgets.

Environmentally, “Downeaster” locomotives consume about three gallons of fuel per mile versus six miles a gallon for a bus running on existing roadways. Each 34-mile Auburn-Portland trip by train, therefore, would burn 102 gallons of diesel versus only six for the bus — and leave a far larger carbon footprint from an engine with 10 times the horsepower.

The train must attract 60 riders per trip to match the fuel efficiency of a driver-only automobile delivering 20 miles to the gallon; the bus only five.

Rail advocacy politics rely on selective data, lack of detail, glib sound bites, and avoidance of debate, exemplified by the Brunswick experience. Mayor LaBonte gets it; if the bus doesn’t work, there’s no realistic role for a train.

George Betke Jr., president, Transport Economics Inc., Newcastle

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