For the last decade before 1971, the PV&T only operated commuter trains out of Boston & intercity passenger service between Portland & Montréal – five trains, of which two of them were expresses and one night train (the two others stopped at every station along the line, albeit only doing flag stops at most of them.) After 1971, there were none; the PV&T’s Montréal to Portland corridor is woefully lacking in large towns & cities, and it looked like if there was any reduction in service (which pretty much would have to be done; if Amtrak offered five trains a day on this low density line, the stakeholders would demand the same on other low density lines) existing customers might bail in favor of driving.

But even up to halfway through the previous decade the passenger service was sitting pretty with 4 of the 5 trains profitable and the night train (in service primarily to provide a way for PV&T employees to go between the Portland & Montréal offices in some degree of comfort) was not losing enough money to offset the profits from the other 4.

Here is what the timetables from 1966-1971 looked like: