ELLSWORTH – A passenger railroad between Bangor and Trenton is still a distant dream.

But Maine’s Department of Transportation took a leap forward Monday when they announced a plan to spend this summer answering the key question – If we build it, will the passengers come?

The Bangor to Trenton Transportation Alternatives Study will begin in early July, coordinated by the MDOT Office of Passenger Transportation, said office engineer David Nelson.

The federally funded study will consider how to best use the state-owned Calais Branch rail line, which runs almost parallel to Route. 1A from Brewer to Ellsworth. Additional connections at Bangor International and Trenton airports, and existing bus lines such as Concord Trailways and Island Explorer, will allow visitors to explore Eastern Maine without ever driving a car.

“We have congestion and air quality problems now, and these problems are only going to get worse if we don’t do something. We’re looking for a way to get passengers from Bangor to MDI without putting more cars on the road,” Nelson told area residents at a pair of public meetings held in Ellsworth and Brewer Monday.

The right-of-way has been proposed as a perfect corridor for a number of options – passenger trains, trolleys, ferries or even a dedicated bus route that could bypass other vehicular traffic.

“No decision has been made. This isn’t, ‘Look out everybody, here comes the train,'” said Lisa DiTaranti, of SYSTRA Consulting, Bloomfield, N.J., one of several consulting firms that have been hired by state transportation officials.

“Nobody is talking about outlawing vehicles,” added Marc Warner, of KK&O Associates, Cambridge, Mass.

Rather, the DOT hopes to track, and perhaps shift, the loyalties of visitors who currently drive to Mount Desert Island along the Midcoast.

“We see this as an opportunity to encourage people to fly or drive to Bangor to reduce some of the congestion on Route 1A,” said Tracy Perez of the office of passenger transportation.

Though some employers, such as Jackson Laboratory, have expressed interest in a commuter rail, local residents alone wouldn’t be able to support a system. So the DOT is imagining a seasonal, May through October system that targets the worst of Down East Maine’s traffic problems by drawing visitors away from the highway.

“We’re going to build this system on the back of the tourist industry,” Nelson said.

The first of three surveys will be mailed to 1,000 people nationwide who requested information about vacationing in Maine from the state’s tourism bureau over the past two years, said DiTaranti. SYSTRA anticipates a 40 percent return rate on the survey.

The second survey will be handed out to visitors on the streets of Mount Desert Island during the second week of July. Consultants will ask passersby a few questions, then give them the short questionnaire to be completed and mailed. Countless surveys will be distributed in hopes of receiving 1,000 back, she said.

Though succinct, the surveys are designed to find out who travels to the Mount Desert Island region, where they hail from, how they arrive, what types of transportation they prefer, and how many transfers they would be willing to make to reach their ultimate destination.

Several people at Monday’s forums were concerned that survey questions, which use rail service as an example to gauge public interest in public transportation, were skewed to favor a passenger rail system.

“You’re not asking if you want a car or something else, you’re asking, ‘Do you want a car or a train,'” said Ann Dyer, who lives on Phillips Lake.

However, consultants claimed that the survey method they have chosen will permit them to use ridership from one type of mass transit to extrapolate interest levels for other types of transportation, as well as answer the primarily question – whether visitors will be interested in such a system.

Consultants suspect that some leisure travelers, such as recreational vehicle drivers or campers traveling with a great deal of equipment would not be interested in any public transportation system.

“Families of four who drive with all their luggage and a canoe on top probably aren’t going to be willing to take a train,” Perez said.

Survey results and previous research from the Maine Tourism Bureau, local chambers of commerce, Island Explorer and other sources will be compiled.

Transportation engineers at SYSTRA will then use the data to build a computer model that can predict how many people could be expected to use such a system, both immediately, and 10 or 20 years in the future, DiTaranti said.

Conclusions will be presented to the public in September or October, Nelson said.

If the ridership results show sufficient interest, the transportation department will go forward with a second phase of the research project, producing engineering studies and financial feasibility reports for each different transportation option.