Caution around rail tracks urged

Rail officials and police are sounding the alarm for people to be more careful around train tracks in the midcoast area after a string of near misses between trains and people.

Maine Eastern Railroad officials say the close calls have come as passenger and freight train traffic has increased along the 58-mile line between Brunswick and Rockland.

John Shute, general manager of Maine Eastern Railroad, said the situation has caused the rail line to adopt a no-tolerance policy against trespassers. State law prohibits anyone from entering a 66-foot-wide swath around the tracks, and carries a $100 initial trespassing fine that increases to $500 for a second offense.

Shute said the trains are difficult to hear because the new tracks are welded and do not make a clickety-clack sound. The line has 130 curves – which means locomotive engineers cannot see what is ahead of them – and the trains travel up to 59 mph.

“With the stuff we have been seeing, it’s just a matter of time before someone gets killed,” said Shute.

The latest incident occurred in Woolwich last Tuesday when Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Department officers cited a hunter who had parked his all-terrain vehicle next to the railroad tracks.

In October, a train carrying 60 people hit an ATV that was stuck on a railroad trestle in Warren. The ATV’s operator and his son, who were from Massachusetts, dove from the trestle into a brook while the impact sent the ATV flying into the woods.

In August, Wiscasset police arrested two New York residents who were fishing from a railroad bridge over the Sheepscot River. When a train came along, they had to dangle from the side of the trestle to avoid being hit.

Knox County Sheriff Daniel Davey has instructed his officers to issue trespassing summonses to people who enter the railroad’s right of way. The rule applies not only to ATV riders, but also to dog walkers, horse riders, hunters and fishermen.

Davey said some of the problems are the result of the rail line being lightly used for years.

But the line was upgraded earlier this year to accommodate passenger trains, which ran through Oct. 31. At the same time, the decommissioning of Maine Yankee in Wiscasset and an increase in Dragon Cement shipments have produced more rail freight traffic this year.

Davey said the public needs to become accustomed to the increased rail traffic.

“Somehow we have got to get the point across that these tracks are very dangerous,” Davey said. “It’s going to be a real heartbreaker if a family comes down here and gets clobbered by one of these trains.”