Brewer councilor for resolve to re-establish area rail service

A Brewer City Councilor is jumping on the caboose, along with passenger railroad service proponents, to bring back the once most-relied upon form of transportation.

In the past 15 years various groups have attempted to revive passenger rail service, including the National Association of Railroad Passengers, the Maine Rail Group, and, most recently, the Portland-based Trainriders Northeast.

Councilor Jerry Hudson, in a resolve to support expansion of passenger rail service to Bangor, said trains could be an attractive and economically alternative means of transportation for many Maine people. Furthermore he praised the efforts of Trainriders to bring service back to the state.

“We need to move Maine into the future,” he said, adding that the transition means returning to a mass transit network.

Rather than widen the Maine Turnpike, Hudson said, the state should invest in a local transit system. Passenger rail service would bring in the tourists, he claimed, while lessening the traffic on the turnpike.

If the service proves to be economically unfeasible year-round, Hudson proposed operating a seasonal schedule, whereby service would be heavier in the summer than during the off-season.

According to results of a recent Capitol News Service survey a $4.5 million bond issue for the acquisition of railroad rights-of-way was opposed by a majority of the respondents. The telephone survey of 764 people showed 49.2 percent did not support the issue.

“The rail bond issue is one that has had little if any information before the public,” said Transportation Commissioner Dana Conners. “The poll numbers show us it is incumbent on us to get the message out and tell people what this bond means to the entire state.”

Conners said the bond issue is part of a plan to ease present-day congestion on the highways from the transportation of various products, as well as to upgrade rail service in the state. Failure to get voter support, he said, could have a ripple effect on the availability of federal dollars to maintain the tracks.

“Those in the communities involved, groups like Trainriders Northeast, lawmakers, and other supporters of rail service are going to have to campaign hard for passage,” he said.

Trainriders Northeast is going full-throttle.

In less than a year, group membership has grown to more than 400 in Maine and New Hampshire. Its founder, Portland businessman Wayne Davis, has been busy educating the public about the return of the trains.

The groups goal eventually is to have Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont connected to Amtrack, the passenger rail service that serves most of the Northeast. The cornerstone of that route would be Portland-to-Boston rail service, linking Maine with the Hub and eastern cities beyond.

“Once the train is running between Portland and Boston, it doesn’t make any sense for that to be the end of the line,” Davis said. “It makes good sense to have rapid rail service from Bangor into Lewiston and Auburn.”