Since TrainRiders’ creation in 1989, Wayne Davis has been both its president and chair of its board.  In the last part of 2022, TrainRiders’ board elected F. Bruce Sleeper as president of the organization, effective as of January 1, 2023.  Wayne, of course, remains as chair, but separation of the chair and president positions will allow him to concentrate on policy issues, as well as maintaining the close personal connections that he has created over the years and which have been so important to TrainRiders’ success.  Bruce, on the other hand, will handle many of the organization’s day-to-day activities.

For those of you who do not know him, you can rest assured that Bruce comes to his new position with an unmatched breadth of experience.  Bruce has served as volunteer legal counsel to TrainRiders since 1989, just a few months after its creation, while also working at the Portland law firm of Jensen Baird Gardner & Henry until his at least partial retirement on December 31, 2023.  He wrote the original version of Maine’s Passenger Rail Service Act, which, in 1991, became the first citizen-initiated bill adopted by the Maine legislature without the need for voter approval.  That Act directed the Maine Dept. of Transportation to spend a minimum of $40 million to reinitiate passenger rail service between Portland and Boston.  In 1995, he worked with MDOT to include provisions in that Act for the creation of Maine’s rail authority, the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority, to contract for the construction and operation of this service.  Then-Governor King appointed him to a five-year term on NNEPRA’s inaugural board of directors.  In 2015, Bruce also successfully represented TrainRiders in extensive proceedings before the Maine Dept. of Environmental Protection, helping to ensure that NNEPRA would be able to build its maintenance and layover facility in Brunswick. 

In addition to these activities, Bruce worked closely with Wayne on many, many other issues faced by TrainRiders, including attendance at meetings throughout the Maine, New England, Washington, DC and elsewhere, as well as talking to and working with Wayne on a daily basis.  He has already stepped into his new role without much, if any, transition time.  In fact, he comments that his new position will not be much different from what he has done before, just more of it.

Bruce was born in Maine and attended Cape Elizabeth schools.  He obtained a BA from the University of Chicago in 1978 and a JD from the University of Michigan in 1981, and then immediately returned to Maine to both work and raise a family.  We can look forward to seeing more of Bruce in the future as he finishes up his tenure as a practicing attorney. 

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