The Champlain Flyer commuter train makes its probable last run tonight to the deep regret of its few but ardent regular riders.

The train started operating between Charlotte and Burlington in December, 2000, but never attracted the number of passengers expected. The Flyer cost $14.9 million to build, much more than originally planned.

The Flyer had little impact on traffic congestion on parallel Shelburne Road and did nothing overall to reduce pollution, an audit report released earlier this winter said.

Gov. Jim Douglas suspended the Flyer as he announced the state transportation budget in January.

Passengers on the train Thursday nonetheless despaired at the impending shutdown, and offered their own critiques of what went wrong.

"I'm a supporter of it, but I'm also a critic of it," said Rich Sturim of Charlotte. "It was a terrific idea that never really got carried out very well."

Sturim said the train should have traveled farther south toward Middlebury, where it would have attracted more passengers. The Flyer was also inadequately publicized, he said, a sentiment echoed by other passengers on the train.

Large Burlington businesses could have more strenuously encouraged employees to ride the train, said Sara Tomkins of Shelburne. "I work at Fletcher Allen. They didn't promote it the way they should have. They have a lot of employees that could have used it," she said.

Officially, the Flyer is suspended, not killed. Lawmakers and the state transportation agency could revive the train, especially if a planned U.S. 7 reconstruction ties up traffic and people start clamoring for an alternative.

"There is a possibility we're working on, if there's a real serious bottleneck, but nobody can define what a real serious bottleneck is," said Rep. Frank Mazur, R-South Burlington, a critic of the train who is chairman of the House Transportation Committee.

Mazur's counterpart on the Senate Transportation Committee, Richard Mazza, D-Grand Isle, also said the Flyer could restart if expected U.S. 7 construction becomes severe. Lawmakers are working with the transportation agency on that possibility, Mazza and Mazur said.

The Flyer was never extended south, to where a potential commuter base lived, Mazza noted. The train was also never tested by the U.S. 7 reconstruction. "I'm amazed it did as well as it did with the conditions it was under," Mazza said.

"Maybe we could get some private enterprise that would want to consider it," Mazza said.

Champlain Flyer Manager Jim Fitzgerald, a state employee, said he doesn't know what he will do after the next couple weeks of finishing up work and securing stations. "I haven't been told yet," he said.

Six Vermont Railway Inc. employees kept the Flyer running. The six will be reassigned to other railroad jobs, replacing company employees who have left in recent months to pursue other jobs, said Vermont Railway President David Wulfson.

"We have plenty of other things going on," Wulfson said. Champlain Flyer cars and equipment will go into storage as Vermont Railway awaits word on the Flyer's fate.

Wulfson said Vermont Railway is considering re-starting a tourist train that would run between Burlington and Middlebury on weekends.

Twenty-eight passengers rode the train south from Burlington on its run shortly after 5 p.m. Thursday. One of them was Margradel Hicks of Burlington, who boarded the Flyer on a lark as the sky went pink and orange west of the Burlington train station.

"We chose this run so that it will give us the sunset. It will be the sun setting on the Champlain Flyer," she said.

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ON BOARD THE MV CUMBERLAND -- Ice crashing into the hull of Lake Champlain's largest ferry makes it hard to hear as the boat pushes its way across the 2-mile channel between Vermont and New York.

A rough icescape looms in front, but the 216-foot MV Cumberland, powered by twin 700-horsepower diesel engines, chops the ice into a slurry of small chunks. A small patch of open water forms in the ferry's wake during the 12-minute crossing, closing as soon as the boat passes.

It might be one of the coldest winters in years and the 120-mile lake is, except for the channel kept open by the ferry, frozen solid.

It looks as if a person could walk across the rough icescape in front of the ferry and reach the smooth frozen stretches to the north and south where the midwinter ice is at least a foot thick, but the ferry's repeated trips keeps the ice chunks from freezing together.

The Cumberland and two other ferries make the run 24 hours a day. They have transformed the lake channel into a highway that saves commuters and truckers a 100-mile round-trip between Plattsburgh and Burlington.

"This is a nice time of year," said Cumberland Capt. Mark Duba, a 34-year veteran of the Lake Champlain Transportation Co. who was there in 1976 when the company started running some of its ferries year-round. "It never gets rough."

When there is open water on the lake during the winter, a south wind can drive ice into the ferry channel until the ice is 6-feet thick. Then the ice is too much even for the custom-built ferries, which have to close down until the wind eases and the ice backs off. That hasn't happened this winter.

"I'd rather it was cold than snowy," said crew member Ed Guenther, a former mortgage banker from Plattsburgh who has worked on the ferries since 1999. Snow has to be shoveled over the side, mostly by hand, a big job for the three members of the deck crew.
Long history


The Lake Champlain Transportation Co. traces its roots to 1826, when it ran steamboats up and down the lake. At that time, the lake was one of the most important economic waterways in North America.

For decades, the company ran three routes when the water was open, catering mostly to tourists. It docked the boats in Burlington when ice closed the lake.

In 1976 the company changed hands. Its new owner, Ray Pecor, decided to try to keep the Grand Isle ferry, the shortest of the three routes and the fastest link between Plattsburgh and Burlington, open as long as possible, said operations manager Dave Schermerhorn.

Now the Grand Isle ferry runs year-round, 24 hours a day.

The Cumberland, the newest of the lake ferries, was built to take the toughest conditions Lake Champlain has to offer. The hull is reinforced and the engines have more power than needed for the regular open-water runs. The four-bladed stainless steel propellers are also built to work in the ice.

Still, running in the ice is a strain.

Until last week the Lake Champlain Transportation Co. was running a single ferry from Charlotte to Essex, N.Y., across a three-mile stretch of the lake about 30 miles south of Grand Isle. But the strain of pushing the smaller and lighter ferry through the ice caused it to blow a gear and the service was suspended until warm weather, Schermerhorn said.

"It doesn't make any sense," Schermerhorn said. "I know it's tough on the few people who depend on it, but it's too risky on the equipment."

The crew becomes accustomed to working through the winter, but members do have to learn special tricks.

Duba knows how to use the propellers to suck ice chunks away from the dock. Sometimes the unused ferries can freeze into the ice during the night. The crews will then back up and go forward until they break their way out.

Another advantage to running all winter is the crews don't scatter during the offseason, Schermerhorn said.

Shortens commute


Last year the Grand Isle ferry carried 869,000 vehicles, Schermerhorn said. During the day there are three ferries running; during the early morning hours, one.

The ferry enables many New Yorkers to live in their home state and work in Vermont, where the salaries are higher. It's at least a 100-mile round-trip to drive north to Rouses Point and cross the nearest bridge into Vermont.

During the week, thousands of commuters and long-distance truckers the crew has come to recognize as regulars ride on the ferry.

"It beats driving to Rouses Point," said Susan Fresn of Plattsburgh, who crossed to Vermont recently on her way to New Hampshire.

Plattsburgh Mayor Dan Stewart crosses three or four times a month, both for business and pleasure. One recent morning he made the round trip on the ferry for a trip to Burlington for a meeting with Mayor Peter Clavelle.

"It makes a huge difference for Vermont and New York," Stewart said.

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Construction of the city's new $15 million "transit center" overlooking the Burlington waterfront is set to begin in the fall, but as the bulldozers move closer, some city councilors and residents are wondering if the futuristic three-story building is what the community needs and if the site makes sense.

City officials last week defended the Battery Street project as an innovative "multi-modal" transportation terminal that will modernize public transit and help relieve traffic congestion. It is intended to link Chittenden County Transportation Authority buses with trains, regional buses, bike paths and ferries, they say.

Michael Monte, who heads the city's Community and Economic Development Office, was enthusiastic about the long-deferred project. The new terminal, he said, "will take our present (public transit) system from 1950 into a new century."

He said the project has cleared numerous permit and planning obstacles and is set to move ahead.

"It's permitted, financed and has had multiple approvals from City Council," he said.

Though the city has had no rail-passenger service since the Champlain Flyer shut down March 1, that won't always be true, said Dan Bradley, the city's transportation planner.

"I see that as part of the future," he said.

Richard Doyle, the regional administrator for the Federal Transit Administration, which is providing two-thirds of the money for the project, said a change of site wouldn't necessarily put FTA funding at risk, and that even without a current rail link, the project is defensible.

"We approved it on the basis that Burlington needed a new bus station," he said. "There was rail service when we approved it, but it has independent utility as a stand-alone project."

The absence of a current train connection in Burlington, however, and the building's location, give pause to some Battery Street business owners.

"It's kind of a wacky idea," said Bradford Hume, whose City Lights store is in the Cornerstone Building next to the project site. "I'd basically scrap the idea, if it were up to me, especially if no trains are coming here."

"This isn't just an ordinary piece of real estate," said Jared Gange, the owner of nearby Huntington Graphics. "It's an absolutely prime location in terms of tourist visitation and the beauty of the waterfront. It seems this project has a good chance of spoiling that."

Directly across Battery Street from the proposed site, Cheryl Foster, the manager of Advanced Vision, said she is worried about the mess of construction and an increase in traffic after the building is complete.

"It's going to be like another Shelburne Road here," she said.

She has concerns, too, that the new terminal will change the tenor of the neighborhood.

"There's something about a bus station that draws a certain kind of crowd," she said. "I can only see a lot of negatives."

Council reservations

Some city councilors, too, said they have reservations about the project at the site that currently houses the Mesa Factory Store and Waterfront Video.

"Over the last couple of years, the project's been scaled back," said Council President Andy Montroll, D-Ward 6. "Now it's more a bus station with unrelated office space. It's worth taking a second look at it, to see if this is the best site." He said he has asked the council's Transportation Committee to again consider the issue.

Jean O'Sullivan, D-Ward 7, who chairs the Transportation Committee, said that group will discuss the project this week and update the full council at its June 23 meeting.

She and Bill Keogh, D-Ward 5, another committee member, agreed the new transit center makes sense in terms of improving bus service. But both cautioned that its success would be contingent on the city getting firm commitments from tenants to fill the retail and office space. Without that income, O'Sullivan said, the building wouldn't be self-supporting and would be in danger of sliding into the seediness often associated with bus stations.

"We don't have anyone yet as a tenant," she said, "and I'm not supporting it if we don't have a commitment in advance. We're not in the business of putting up a speculative commercial building. I love the idea, if it's fully committed. If not, I hate it. This is a huge project," she continued. "If we do it, it has to be well thought-out. I don't want bobbing and weaving to make this thing work."

Carina Driscoll, P-Ward 3, the third member of the Transportation Committee, was less certain that the project is warranted. She called the Battery Street site "not ideal."

"The council needs to re-evaluate its position and make sure it's what we want to do," she said, (but) it's very late in the process to pick a new site."

The council's sole Republican, Kevin Curley, Ward 4, supports the concept of a new terminal, but said the building's intended location would devalue the waterfront, particularly with its proximity to the new science center, ECHO at the Leahy Center for Lake Champlain.

"It's idiotic to put a stinking, diesel-fume spewing bus station within a stone's throw of an eco-center."
Long-planned center


The project, contemplated since 1992, was envisaged in 1998 as a five-story building occupying a "super block" on Battery Street. It would have had 11 bus bays, 288 parking spaces and more than 67,000 square feet of commercial and retail space. At current prices, Bradley said, that version of the building would have cost "at least $30 million."

In its earlier incarnation, the new terminal would have served as the Burlington base for the Vermont Transit Co., but that bus company is no longer a part of the project.

"We were originally fully committed to going into the location," said Chris Andreasson, Vermont Transit's general manager, "but with the compromises on size, it seemed we'd have to have two Burlington facilities, and that would put the cost out of line."

Even in its current scaled-back version, the building would be a vast improvement over the 20-year-old makeshift bus transfer center at Cherry and Church streets, said CCTA General Manager Chris Cole.

"You don't build the project for the here and now," he said, "but for the future. We carry 1.6 million riders annually and the current system is inconvenient. Keeping people on a street corner downtown when it's 20 below isn't inviting or convenient."

CCTA has no data, Cole said, forecasting whether the proposed terminal, displaced from the immediate downtown, would increase the number of bus riders. But he said he is confident that a new facility and improved routes would draw new customers to CCTA.

"Logic dictates that if you make the system more convenient, you'll hold on to the riders you have and gain more," he said.

CCTA did provide results from a customer survey this April and May that suggests bus riders "always" or "usually" approve of the present service. Forty-three of 50 surveyed said their bus is on time; 50 of 50 said their driver is courteous; 38 of 50 said the buses run frequently enough; and 49 of 50 said the bus is convenient for them.

Cole said the new terminal also represents a long-overdue investment in public transit. While the airport and regional highways absorb public dollars year after year with little public discussion, he said, public transit suffers in comparison.

"How many millions of dollars do we spend on the airport, and no one questions that," he said, "and I have to ask why. When it comes to public transit, there hasn't been the level of investment to build a system that people want to use."

He said some opposition to the terminal arises from a disdain for bus riders.

"I think what's going on with a lot of folks who oppose" the new terminal, he said, "is that (they) do not want public access to the waterfront easier for people who use (buses)."

The current "inconvenient" public transit system, Cole said, repeating the argument made repeatedly by city officials, discourages potential bus riders and ensures they will continue to rely on their cars to get to work.

"If you don't build something different than the rest of the country has," he said, noting the proliferation of highways nationwide, "you'll end up looking like the rest of the country."
Contact John Briggs at 660-1863 or jbriggs@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com



Transit center facts

-- PROPOSED LOCATION: 131 Battery St., adjacent to Burlington Bay Market & Cafe.
-- DESCRIPTION: Six bus bays, a 48-space parking garage, amenities for bicyclists, 17,000 square feet of rentable commercial and retail space, and improvements to Battery Street.
-- TIMETABLE: Construction to begin in the fall. Building occupancy, March 2005.
-- ESTIMATED COST: $15,053,000
-- FUNDING SOURCES: Federal: $9,769,791; city: $1,152,729; state: $1,152,729; private: $2,329,713.
-- FINANCIAL COMMITMENTS ALREADY MADE: $1,486,907
-- PROJECT GOAL: "To enhance public transit opportunities in downtown Burlington by providing significant infrastructure improvements that coupled with route and other system enhancements and additional mode choice will expand accessibility and improve mobility without expanding the roadway network."
Source: Burlington Community & Economic Development Office


What's next?

-- Negotiations continue between the city and lease-holders at 131 Battery St. to free the property for demolition of the existing building. The structure houses the Mesa Factory Store and Waterfront Video.
-- Report on project by Transportation Committee to City Council, 7:30 p.m. June 23.

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