BANGOR – In what he called “the jobs express,” Gov. John Baldacci rode the rails from Mattawamkeag to Bangor on Monday, announcing about 75 new jobs along the way.

In Mattawamkeag, Baldacci and David Fink, vice president of Guilford Rail System, stood in front of schoolchildren and other community members to announce two business expansions in the town.

“David was going to give them [the schoolchildren] job applications because they won’t have to leave the state to find work,” Baldacci said. “They can stay in their own community.”

Guilford Rail subsidiary Perma Treat plans to open a railroad ties construction facility in Mattawamkeag and plans to employ up to 30 people, according to Fink. Walpole Woodworkers Inc., based in Pittsfield, which makes fences and other products, also will open a plant in Mattawamkeag and will hire up to 25 people.

Both Walpole and Perma Treat will be located at the former Foster manufacturing plant, which now is owned by Guilford.

In Lincoln, the second stop on the morning-to-early-afternoon train trip, Baldacci met with the owners and workers at Lincoln Paper and Tissue Co. As he did on Saturday at a mill picnic, the governor congratulated the company for starting to earn a profit on its specialty tissue and other product lines.

During the third stop of the train tour, Baldacci met with more than 150 workers at Georgia-Pacific in Old Town. There, according to the governor, he was informed about new product lines the mill might manufacture, and he took a tour of the construction site of a new boiler plant.

JSI Store Fixtures, the Maine Small Business Administration’s business of the year, announced during the trip that it was adding 20 positions at its Milo facility, Baldacci said.

In Bangor, the final stop, Baldacci and Mayor Dan Tremble spoke about how manufacturing jobs in northern and central Maine fuel the city’s economy.

“People are employed today in Bangor because of jobs up and down the [Penobscot] River,” Tremble said.

Speaking to a small gathering at the redeveloped Penobscot River waterfront, Baldacci presented the city with a check for $100,000 to help fund next year’s American Folk Festival.

Baldacci called the train trip a success.

“We were able to see the foundation of Maine’s future spread out through the region in a small-sample kind of way,” he said.