Maine railways petition to give up 30-mile line

WASHINGTON — Maine Central Railroad Co. and the Springfield Railway Co. want to sell a 30-mile stretch of track between Dover-Foxcroft and Newport, and have petitioned the Interstate Commerce Commission for permission to give up the line.

The 30-mile route is one of five that Maine Central, which owns the track, and Springfield, which operates rail service on the track, might sell to the state.

“We have had two years of discussion with the state over this line and several others,” said F. Colin Pease, a spokesman for Springfield and Maine Central.

Russell Spinney, of Maine’s Department of Transportation, said the state would like to buy the rail corridor and convert it into any one of a number of possible uses, including a route for telephone lines, power lines, sewage pipes, a bicycle path, a hiking path or a snowmobile path.

“It’s customary on our part to purchase any abandoned rail line. Basically, our charge is to preserve the rail corridor for future transportation purposes, whether it be transmission lines, pipelines, a highway or anything else,” he said.

The Dover-Foxcroft-to-Newport route is expected to cost the state $800,000, he said.

The $800,000 figure applies to the stretch of land only, excluding the track. With the track, the corridor would cost an estimated $1.7 million, he said.

“We don’t believe it makes a lot of sense to buy it intact,” he said, adding that the line had not been used for about four years and the state doesn’t foresee any future demand for the track.

The state’s purchase of another stretch of railroad, 33.68 miles from Augusta to Brunswick, has progressed further, with a November vote expected on a $4.5 million bond issue that, in this case, includes the cost of the land and the track.

If approved, the state would solicit proposals from short-line operators to serve customers in the area, Spinney said, adding that the smaller freight companies have lower labor costs and greater flexibility in arranging their schedules for customers.

Maine Central and Springfield, also known as Springfield Terminal Railway, is the fourth largest rail operator in Maine. It covers from 500 to 550 miles of track, serves paper mills and feed mills, and ships other products including rock salt for the road system and food, Pease said.

Springfield Terminal and the state are discussing the sale of three other routes that the rail company plans to abandon.

They are: 33.79 miles from Westbrook to Fryeburg in Cumberland County; 9.54 miles from Lewiston to Lisbon in Androscoggin County; and 5 miles from Anson to Madison in Somerset County.

The ICC has announced its plans to approve the abandonment of the route between Dover-Foxcroft and Newport, a technical decision that’s needed before the city and the rail companies can proceed with concrete plans for the sale of the corridor.

Unless the ICC receives any arguments against the abandonment before July 26, it will automatically grant approval.