Passenger trains from Rockland to Bath and beyond are unlikely to start rolling any time soon, a state official confirmed.
Tracy Perez, policy specialist with the Maine Department of Transportation, said it could be a year or two before you can board a mid-coastal train. And it could be 2007 before passenger rail connects with existing Amtrak trains in Portland. Earlier this year, officials thought a self-propelled car might be operating this season on the Rockland Branch. It didn’t happen, and Perez blames a lagging economy.
In long-range plans, transportation officials have envisioned a rail-ferry network taking tourists to Acadia Park and elsewhere, with a high-speed ferry terminal in Rockland.
She said Gov. John Baldacci expressed strong support for passenger rail during his campaign, and she hopes he will remain committed to it. Meanwhile, Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe is fighting to save federal support for Amtrak, in the face of a Bush Administration attempt to dismantle the agency through privatization. In Maine, Perez said, “We’re seeing an awful lot of support. People want trains. I’m guardedly optimistic.”
Meanwhile, she said, the state has contracted with the Morristown and Erie Railway to operate the Rockland Branch line. The New Jersey-based company owns some 1970s-vintage former New Jersey Transit cars, plus some restored antique railroad cars from a more opulent era, including a dining car. Those cars are compatible with Amtrak trains, she said.
The M&E Railway takes over Sept. 1 from Safe Handling of Auburn, which had, in turn, succeeded Maine Coast Railroad, a company that operated passenger rail excursions from Wiscasset.
Perez said she is briefing Baldacci on the status of passenger rail, including service from Portland to Augusta. She said the Bath-Rockland line has potential for both commuter and excursion trains, with two major employers: the Bath Iron Works shipyard on one end, and the MBNA credit card firm at the other. Rockland and its summer festivals area are a draw for tourists.
Eventually, Transportation officials hope to extend Amtrak service from the current Boston-Portland run to Freeport and Brunswick. For now, track owner Guilford Transportation is blocking that move.
The state, which owns the Rockland Branch as well as that city’s railroad station, has completed $30 million worth of repairs to the line, which is primarily used by Dragon Cement of Thomaston. Dragon receives supplies by rail, but it mostly uses the line to ship cement from its plant to barges at Rockland’s South End docks, using a short rail spur.
If passenger trains start rolling, they can use the existing stations at Bath and Rockland, and new platforms could be built in Freeport, Brunswick, Newcastle and possibly Thomaston.
“As we grow older,” Perez said, referring to the aging of the state’s population, “there is going to be more and more demand for alternatives to driving.”