If a high-speed train can take commuters from Concord to Boston, will anyone still ride the bus?

That question weighs heavily on the mind of Jim Jalbert, president of the Boston Express bus system. State officials say they are confident that bus and rail service can coexist and complement one another. But Jalbert is less sure. He thinks the state must pay more attention to coordinating rail with buses.

"If they just did the rail, Boston Express would go away," Jalbert said. "They can't coexist."

Peter Burling, chairman of the Rail Transit Authority, stressed that buses are an important part of the state's plan. "Jim hasn't got it yet," Burling said. "If you have bus and rail, your use of both systems is going to go up. . . . The notion that people will somehow choose either/or between bus and train just misses the interconnectivity of the whole design."

But Jalbert said that interconnectivity has not been a part of state discussions. "I'm dumbfounded the state would suggest that there's been an ongoing dialogue about integrated bus and rail in this project," Jalbert said. "There's never been a conversation."

The state Department of Transportation will submit the first part of an application to the federal government later this month asking for $300 million in federal stimulus money to construct a passenger rail line between Boston and Concord. The rest of the application will be submitted in October, and the state could find out whether it gets the money by December or January, state officials said.

The federal government is providing $8.5 billion, and states have submitted $101 billion worth of requests, based on pre-applications. New Hampshire will compete with states like California and Illinois. But Burling said he anticipates that billions more of federal transportation money will become available in the coming years, so the project could still go forward even if the state does not get money this year.

"I don't know that the people of the state of New Hampshire have seen this yet as a prospect as doable as it is," Burling said.

As envisioned by transportation officials, the new railway would have four to six stations in New Hampshire, including stops in Nashua, Manchester Airport, downtown Manchester and Concord. It would likely stop in Lowell, Mass., and Woburn, Mass., where it would link up with the Amtrak Downeaster train, and in Boston. Mike Izbicki, executive director of the Rail Transit Authority, said it would take around 95 minutes to get from Concord to North Station in Boston and about 78 minutes to get from Manchester to Boston.

Izbicki envisions 10 to 12 trains a day, running every half hour during rush hours and every 90 minutes during the rest of the day. The trains would run seven days a week, to serve not only commuters but also those going to sporting or cultural events or medical appointments.

Department of Transportation Deputy Commissioner Chris Clement said the state projects ridership of around 3,000 passengers a day during the week, or 822,000 per year between Concord and Boston. In the future, Burling said, the state envisions expanding the line all the way to Montreal. (According to Izbicki, state studies predicted 3,000 to 5,000 trips a day between Manchester and Boston and around 1,000 to 2,000 trips from Concord.)

Meanwhile, Jalbert points out that the bus already runs the route along Interstate 93. Boston Express has run service between Boston and Nashua for two years, and Boston and Manchester for eight months. Concord Coach runs a separate bus system between Concord and Boston.

Boston Express is a partnership of the Department of Transportation, C&J Lines and Concord Coach Lines, which was created with a federal grant to mitigate the environmental impacts of the widening of I-93. State funding paid for the buses and contributed to the bus facilities, and the state also contributed one-fifth of its operating subsidy, with the rest coming from federal money. (next page »)