Last trip in 1976 not a sentimental journey

NEWBURYPORT - Train service between Boston and Newburyport, started June 17, 1840. It ended last night.

There was no farewell party, though, or singing of "Auld Lang Syne," or any such observances on the last train to Newburyport. Instead, the half-dozen or so commuters remaining were well outnumbered by around two dozen rail buffs; out to see the extinction of yet another train run.

WEEI's mass transit reporter Chuck Krause was forced to wander down the aisle, asking each rider, "Are you a commuter or a train buff?" before finding a daily rider to interview.

The train service, which had operated once a weekday in each direction, was ended at the request of Mayor Byron J. Matthews when costs to Newburyport reached around $1,500 for each of the approximately 20 day riders. And, since the General Court has made no MBTA appropriation yet, that subsidy might have gone as high as $3,000, if the state refused to pick up its 50 percent share.

Commuter Martha Celestino, Congress Street, Salisbury, said she realized the mayor had no choice. But she was upset nonetheless. "We decided to settle in this area," Mrs. Celestino said, "partly because of the train service." A train commuter since moving to this area last August, she will start taking the bus now.

"People say these things have to make a profit," she went on. But "you can't say Route 95 is making a profit." She pointed out the "huge public expenditure" in highways, including the costs of construction; costs from auto-caused pollution; and from lost tax revenue when city areas have to be cleared for parking lots.

"I don't think, viewed in these terms, this (train) has to show a profit."

Conductor Herbert Baldwin thought the 6:30 a.m. departure time from Newburyport helped kill the train service, because it was just too early. A train man for the last 35 years, he was on the Newburyport run just for the last month and a half. He and the other men who worked on the train will continue to do so, as the 5:32 from Boston will keep going as far as Ipswich.

For the record, the personnel on the last train were: Baldwin; engineer Wilbur Rogers of Newbury; fireman Bill Avery; and brakemen Anthony Aiello and Norman Staples.

Meanwhile, the train fans were taking pictures of the train, making tape recordings of the conductor's call and of track noises, and talking about other last runs they'd been on.

"There used to be three or four last runs a year," one commented. "But there haven't been so many lately. This is the first this year." Several of these riders made sure to get extra punched tickets as souvenirs.

The train finally pulled into Newburyport shortly before 7 p.m. The few commuters remaining got off - Baldwin commented that most of the regulars had said they'd start taking the bus, although a few thought they might drive to Ipswich to pick up the train there.

The rail fans got out, took flash photos of the locomotives, then got back on for the ride to Boston.

Standing by the Washington Street terminals was local historian D'Arcy Van Bokkelen, who commuted on the Boston and Maine for nine years. He had come down to see the end of Newburyport's rail service.

"It's too bad," he said. "With a little more imagination, it could have been saved." Starting about a year ago, when the express train was eliminated, he said, the ridership had declined. He, like Baldwin, also blamed the early departure for discouraging potential riders.

Once, the express run was a merry affair, with daily parties held by the regulars on the hour-long run. That practice, though, ended when the train began stopping at other communities along the way - a schedule change which added 20 minutes to commuting time and further discouraged riders.

"It took an hour and a half to get into Boston" once express service was done away with; it never made too much sense to me," said Van Bokkelen. But even as recently as the early 1960s, he remarked, when there had been several trains a day, 350 people rode them daily.

Pruning the number of trains, though, instead of concentrating that ridership, practically eliminated it; and Van Bokkelen felt the MBTA had done little to encourage passenger service.

"The ride to Ipswich was one of the nicest in the world," he said. "I'd stand in front and look at the marshes." But, as the B&M rode the route for the last time - until and unless service is restored - it was night, and nothing could be seen from the train but blackness.