Calais-Brewer rail line needed for economic growth

What will railroading look like 27 years from now? Will yards be jammed, main lines clogged, and trains backed up from terminals for 30 miles or more. Or will routes be fluid, with freights roaring by every eight to 10 minutes on main lines three-, four-, even six-tracks wide? Either future is possible or something in between. Which direction it goes depends on money – $148 billion to be exact. That’s the level of spending called for in the National Rail Freight Infrastructure Capacity and Investment Study available for download at www.aar.org .

Now, back to the Brewer to Calais line. In the 1980s, Maine Central abandoned the track. The state, in its infinite wisdom, led the charge to buy the line and preserve it for future use by railroads for the area’s economic stability. The Department of Transportation employed three or more employees that were suppose to keep the tracks clear and culverts cleaned to stop washouts and keep the line viable for use. They bought hi-rails and were to patrol the tracks regularly. Well, they failed miserably. They built a little bureaucracy within a bureaucracy. They camped out in Augusta and didn’t do their job and washouts and flooded tracks were the end results.

There was a study done and it recommended that the track remain in place, a trail be placed beside the rail and that they coexist, which made perfect sense to most involved.

Now, we have come to the ambitious concept of tearing up the tracks from Ellsworth to Ayers Junction (Charlotte). The state thinks that bringing in four-wheeler trails and skiing will help the economy grow in Washington County. They are sadly mistaken and very shortsighted, which seems to be the way of thinking for the Augusta powers that be. Even some local representatives in the Calais area are thinking short term.

With fuel prices rising and no end in sight, the only way to offset price increases is to go back to mass transportation of freight, fuel and eventually passenger service.

Cut that tie by tearing out the section between the two respective points on this line and it will never happen. No. 1 because the bridge that is used in Calais now is unsafe and the Canadian government will not allow the Canadian counterpart to cross the bridge. I am told that it will take $20 million to $30 million to replace that bridge. The track on both sides of the border are on a day-to-day use, little or no maintenance is being performed. I also have been told that the paper company Domtar is paying a large yearly maintenance fee to New Brunswick Southern Rail.

Is spending that kind of money to service such a small area wise? To reinstate the track from Calais to Brewer and service a broader area in the freight business while promoting economic growth in Washington and Hancock counties – not to mention the ability to expand at a later date to passenger service – would make more sense, and it is happening nationwide.

Or is it better to tear up the track and spend $300 million plus to replace the track once it is gone? We know that will never happen. Another thing to keep in mind is that somewhere in the shadows lurks a concept that once the track is taken up and it is no longer used for rail service that the land reverts back to the abutting landowners, which happened on the Eastport line.

I understand that this has been brought to the attention of Rep. Anne Perry, D-Calais. I was told that she was very uninterested in the events taking place and that it was a done deal and would be good for the economy. We had no one on the Legislature’s Transportation Committee to represent us in this large decision being made for us.

This short sightedness needs to stop, and stop now, because the rope for economic growth is nearing the end.

Dale E. Earle of New Portland is retired state trooper who patrolled Washington County. He proposed a scenic railroad for the Brewer-Calais line.