No trains through school site likely, MDOT official says

ELLSWORTH — Trains probably will not run through the proposed site of a high school in Ellsworth at any time soon, a state transportation official said Thursday.

Allan Bartlett, acting director of the Maine Department of Transportation’s rail division, said rumors of imminent train service through the Siondecine site were exaggerated.

The sighting of transportation workers inspecting rails recently apparently led people to believe that train service might be about to resume through the Outer State Street site proposed for a new high school.

The existing track on the site will separate the school building from athletic fields. The school project was designed that way because the existence of wetlands in the area precluded putting the facility and fields closer together.

School Superintendent Bruce Sawyer said the school building would be 200 feet from the track, and was designed on the premise that the railroad might eventually come back.

According to Bartlett, workers have been inspecting the rails and facilities to decide what repairs would be needed if New England Southern Railroad Co. decided to pursue a preliminary plan to offer freight-train service on the abandoned line between Brewer and Cherryfield.

Excursion service being considered could begin in East Holden where tracks cross Route 1A, Bartlett said, and continue to Green Lake.

The official said he was aware of the impact that renewed train service could have at the Siondecine site off Route 1A if the new school is built. As of now, the design plan includes a roadway crossing the track. An overpass was considered unnecessary, school officials said Thursday.

The line was abandoned by Maine Central Railroad Co. in 1985. Maine voters approved a referendum that authorized the state to purchase the line from Guilford Transportation Industries, parent company of Maine Central.