E-Mail This Article to a Friend Traffic? What traffic? Our correspondent sets a time record traveling from Maine to Boston Monday morning BY SAM PFEIFLE

MONDAY, JULY 26, 2004 -- I could barely sleep just thinking about it: I had to travel to Boston for the Democratic Convention and it was going to be a nightmare.

I checked the Web for street closings. They were mind-boggling. There was no way I was driving.

The Downeaster was out. They’ve shut down all trains, all transportation, heading to North Station.

So I called the bus company, Concord Trailways, which makes the Portland-to-South Station run. They claimed they’d be running on schedule, but that I should take a bus earlier than I normally would if I wanted to get there on time.

Well, I had to be at the Maine delegation’s opening breakfast in Boston’s Copley Square at 8 a.m. Monday. So I took the 5 a.m. bus, worrying I wouldn’t make it.

Of course, we breezed into the city in a staggering hour and forty-five minutes and I was able to saunter over to the Colonnade Hotel on foot, and made it in plenty of time.

"Hey everybody," said the driver when the bus arrived at South Station, "that was the easiest Monday-morning commute I’ve ever had."

So much for the nightmare.