The president of TrainRiders Northeast, F. Bruce Sleeper, will be speaking about the history of TrainRiders’ creation and activities with a special concentration on what TrainRiders has done to initiate Amtrak’s Downeaster service in Maine and its later expansion northward to Brunswick, as well as to support the continued operation and expansion of that service. Mr. Sleeper has lived in Maine his whole life, with the exception of a diversion to the Midwest for college and law school. He became the volunteer legal counsel for TrainRiders in the year of its creation, 1989, and continued in that position until becoming its volunteer president on January 1, 2023, with Wayne Davis remaining as its chair. In his capacity as legal counsel, Mr. Sleeper was responsible for drafting the legislation that became Maine’s Passenger Rail Service Act, which required the Maine Department of Transportation to reinitiate passenger rail service between Maine and Boston. He also helped to draw up the legislation that resulted in the creation of the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority (NNEPRA), the agency that manages the Downeaster on behalf of the State of Maine. Mr. Sleeper was a member of NNEPRA’s inaugural board of directors from 1995 until 2000, having been appointed to that position by Maine’s then-Governor King. As of January 1, 2023, he became semi-retired of counsel at the Portland law firm of Jensen Baird Gardner & Henry, where he has worked since his graduation from law school in 1981.
