PORTLAND – It raced past revenue projections. It chugged just shy of ridership goals. And it streaked to second place for on-time performance.

Amtrak’s Downeaster not only has proven to be a success in its first year, it could serve as a national model as Amtrak seeks to have states share the cost of passenger train service on shorter runs.

The Boston-to-Portland train operates without funding from Amtrak. Instead, Maine is subsidizing the train with a combination of state taxpayer dollars and a federal grant that ends after three years.

“The Downeaster is a service that operates with financial assistance from the state of Maine,” said Dan Stessel, an Amtrak spokesman. “We are proposing that to be a model for state corridor services nationwide.”

The success of the Downeaster, which is overseen by the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority, came during a difficult year for Amtrak.

Amtrak, facing funding shortfalls and equipment shortages, failed to meet a congressional mandate of becoming self-sufficient by year’s end. Overall travel was down after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Against that backdrop, the Downeaster came within 1 percent of its first-year ridership projections, and it ranked second among Amtrak trains for being on time. More importantly, it exceeded revenue projections by roughly 44 percent because so many people chose to ride the train for its entire length.

A year ago, when the first regularly scheduled train departed into the darkness on Dec. 15, rail officials didn’t know what to expect.

“There were know-it-alls up there, including a member of the Amtrak Reform Council, who predicted it would fail,” said Ross Capon, executive director of the National Association of Rail Passengers.

Instead, the Downeaster surpassed expectations even though it started up with an authorized maximum speed of 59 mph instead of 79 mph. Downeaster’s supporters say the faster speed would shave 15 minutes off the trip. The U.S. Surface Transportation Board has yet to rule on whether the train can go that fast.

Despite the lower speed, people continued to ride the train even after the initial euphoria wore off, said John Englert, executive director of the Northern New England Rail Authority.

The first-year success doesn’t mean the Downeaster is self-sustaining. It has received $400,000 from the state and another $1.6 million in federal money obtained by the state. Together, the $2 million accounts for 38 percent of the original budget projection for first year of operation.