Newly-released company statistics show that Concord Coach Lines' passenger numbers in Maine are up by more than 50% from 10 years ago.
The company says last year more than 640,000 people rode Concord Coach Lines in Maine.
"We have seen a lot of steady organic growth in the state of Maine," says company vice president Ben Blunt. Blunt says the growth is in line with southern Maine's increasing population.
And Blunt says that as a bus line, Concord has been able to expand more easily. "And that's not a knock on the train, but they're beholden to how much capacity the tracks can handle and how many cars they have, where we can schedule our buses where we're finding demand for them."
Concord Coach Lines stops in 17 Maine communities, and goes to New Hampshire, Boston and New York.
The company has attracted negative attention in the last couple years for allowing U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents to board buses, and after two other incidents related to immigration and race. One involved a 14-year-old Pakistani-American boy who wasn't allowed to board the bus because he didn't have identification, and the other concerned the actions of a company employee who told a passenger he had to be a citizen to ride the bus.
At that time, the company said it doesn't require ID or citizenship to board the bus, and it never has.
Blunt says that Concord Coach Lines does allow CBP agents to board its buses, but that it makes an effort to inform passengers of their rights.
