With new locale and more runs, Polar Express hitting tracks at full steam

By David Carkhuff

After 11 years of expansion, the Polar Express is riding high in North Conway and Lincoln.This is the first year for the popular wintertime train ride to expand to a new location, offering another run through the Hobo Railroad at Lincoln. And this is the second year that the North Conway-to-Bartlett route is taking advantage of a new staging area that allows a doubling of nightly runs.During last year's Polar Express, the Conway Scenic Railroad carried about 30,000 people over the 15-night event (two trips nightly). Passengers took the train to the "North Pole," located in Lower Bartlett on newly acquired property. This year, the event is running 12 nights. Twice a night, trains from Lincoln and North Conway are bringing children to the North Pole, for a total of 24 performances and 48 total train rides."We kind of look at it as a White Mountain thing," said A.O. Lucy, executive director of the Believe in Books Literacy Foundation, which stages the Polar Express as its chief fund-raiser.Last year, the Polar Express doubled its runs out of North Conway because of the location of newly acquired North Pole property in Bartlett.The Polar Express added Lincoln departures this winter to try to ease the schedule while still satisfying demand for tickets. In the Lincoln area, Believe in Books is leasing property for the North Pole, with a similar theater set up along that rail line.The train ride is inspired by author Chris Van Allsburg's best-selling children's book "The Polar Express," which chronicles a boy's fantastic Christmastime trip to the North Pole, where he meets Santa Claus. "The Polar Express Event is the major fund raiser for the 'Believe in Books' Literacy Foundation. This event is made possible with the collective efforts of hundreds of volunteers, all dressed in appropriate outfits, making sure everyone believes," the Web site (www.polarexpress.org) reports. "It has become so popular that we now sell tickets through a lottery system. Our passengers come from as far away as the West Coast, Canada and Ireland. This year we we will treat almost 20,000 guests to the most magical journey of their life."Proceeds from the Polar Express are used to promote literacy in Mount Washington Valley."Up until this year, we've probably raised $130,000 or $140,000 for programs and grants and scholarships," Lucy reported."Obviously, the bulk of that has been in the last five or six years," Lucy added, noting the growing word-of-mouth popularity of the Polar Express.In 2003, partners in a property acquisition announced that land valued at $472,867 and leased by Mount Washington Observatory for a research center was shifting from a trust into the ownership of Believe in Books Literacy Foundation. Prior to this acquisition, the Conway Scenic Railroad passengers traveled 10 or 15 minutes longer to reach a North Pole staging area at Attitash Bear Peak ski lodge.The new property has been a boon to the literacy foundation."It's a shorter trip, but more importantly it's our own theater," Lucy said."It was great. It gave us a ton of new advantages. We were aware of some, and some just cropped up and made it so much easier," he added. "The seating is elevated in the back and closer and much more of a theater now."A separate lottery, train ride and cadre of volunteers mobilized in Lincoln."This year we're going to Lincoln at the same time ... that has challenges all by itself," Lucy noted. "The main reason for even thinking about it was to meet our customer demand, and we were pretty tapped out here."The odds of winning the Polar Express lottery and receiving a ticket from the pool of applicants improved with the addition of the Lincoln route.This year, participants have a one in three chance in Lincoln and a one in four chance in North Conway, Lucy said. Last year, participants in the North Conway lottery had about a one in five chance; the year, before with just one performance per night, the odds were one in eight, he said.The 2005 ticket lottery closed with drawings in October at both locations. The 2006 lottery deadline is Sept. 30, 2006.