Trains to planes beat automobiles

NORTH KINGSTOWN — The threat of afternoon rain brought an early end to the first day of the Quonset air show, but officials said the experiment of offering free train service there from Providence and Warwick performed well.

Rain began falling around 12:30 p.m., and with the prospect of steady rain to follow, show organizers declared an early end to the day.

On good days, the Rhode Island National Guard Open House and Air Show is the biggest crowd-maker in the state, easily drawing between 40,000 and 50,000 people. Saturday's crowd was pegged at around 20,000, which Guard Col. Peter J. Parente said was due to the unsettled weather.

The show was to reopen Sunday at 9 a.m. with a better forecast in store, he said. The trains will be running at 7:30 a.m. from Providence, with a stop at T.F. Green; at 9:30 a.m. from Providence direct to Quonset; and at 11:15 a.m. from T.F. Green. Return trips will leave Quonset at 2, 4 and 6 p.m.

About 1,400 of those who turned out Saturday got there via the train service organized by the state Department of Transportation. The three morning trains ran as scheduled. DOT spokesman Charles St. Martin said when the rain hit, everyone fit on the 2 p.m. train out. Another was sent at 4 p.m. but St. Martin said no one was there.

Stephen Devine, the DOT's chief of intermodal planning, said the agency was pleased with how the morning went. It was difficult to say if the trains met expectations, he said, because the department had never done it before and didn't know what to expect.

The DOT arranged for free parking at the train station garage on Jefferson Boulevard, near the airport, and parking was also available around the Providence train station, near the State House. Devine estimated the service, provided by the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority, cost about $20,000.

"It brings awareness that there is train service in Rhode Island," he said.

Rider after rider waiting for the 11:15 a.m. train from Green told the same story of previous air show visits: two or three hours in traffic on Route 95 and Route 4 on the drive to Quonset State Airport.

"Because after last year and all the traffic," Michele Silva responded when asked why she was trying the train. "It took two hours to get off the road."

"And it's free," she added.

The ride was slightly more than a half-hour. Many of the passengers brought children, and as the train approached the airport, they were plastered to the windows watching an aerobatic biplane swoop and loop through the sky.

"With this, we get a train ride," said Steve Matsko as he and his wife Kristin helped their 4-year-old son, Steven, off the train. "It's planes, trains, but we got rid of the automobiles."

"But we did have to drive to the train station," his wife observed.

After the ride back, and the wait in the rain, Matsko's enthusiasm was a little dampened. He said it might have helped had the 11:15 a.m. train stuck around for riders to board and get out of the rain.

Silva was unfazed, triumphantly waving her cellphone in the air after her husband called from a traffic jam on Route 95.

"My husband's backed up in traffic," she said, "and we're going home."

All aboard: How many rode?

Estimated ridership on DOT train service from the Providence train station and T.F. Green Airport to the Quonset air show on Saturday:

7:30 a.m., Providence: 250 riders

7:45 a.m., T.F. Green: 100 riders

9:30 a.m., Providence: 625 riders

11:15 a.m., T.F. Green: 430 riders

Total: 1,405

— jhill@providencejournal.com

(401) 277-7381

On Twitter: @jghilliii