PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Maine Department of Transportation Commissioner David Bernhardt served as the guest speaker at the Maine Better Transportation Association gathering at the Northeastland Hotel on Aug. 2, where he shared updates on Presque Isle’s connector project and the latest news on rail service in Aroostook County.
With regard to rail, Bernhardt said, “Things are going good.”
“The $10.5 million TIGER grant was approved over a year ago to fund maintenance and upgrades. As of today’s date, about 60 percent of the work has been done, with Maine Northern Railway doing the work,” he said. TIGER is the acronym for the U.S. DOT’s Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery program.
With improvements come additional locomotives, said the commissioner.
“With that comes more staff in administrative roles,” he said.
Bernhardt said he has seen the number of rail cars increase since J.D. Irving took over the line.
“The traffic has tripled on the line since Irving took over, with plans for more,” said Bernhardt. He said Cavendish, a fertilizer manufacturer, has been among those increasing use of rail to transport products to market.
Bernhardt discussed smaller sections that have been acquired either by Irving or the state, including an eight-mile section in Fort Fairfield. “It was given to us, near Cavendish. We’ll take care of it, since the town doesn’t want to be in the rail business,” said the commissioner.
He said working with a company that has the money to invest in rail line improvements has not only benefited Irving but the state as well.
“Irving has money to put into rail that we haven’t seen in the past. It benefits everyone. We’ve seen a lot more rail movement in Maine,” said Bernhardt.
State Sen. Roger Sherman, R-Houlton, was in attendance and asked if rail speed was going to continue to improve.
“That is their intent. What took seven weeks now takes about 36 hours to Boston. [The delay] was partly due to the relationship with the other rail service,” said Bernhardt. “Northern Maine Rail has created a relationship with two other companies who are acting more like businesses. Work continues to get up to 25 mph on the line.”
Too bad Irving couldn’t gain control of the rest of the MMA rail holdings and put rail back into the bulk freight business throughout the state.
DOH, how can this reporter and editor accept the statement of “tripled”” without adding some sort of qualifying information that it went from 1 to 3 or 50 to 150. Alone, “tripled” is meaningless. Shame on BDN for letting it get by.
I agree with clamcove1. What were the number of railcars per month prior to the sale/upgrade? What is the number today? How much was spent by Irvine and the tax payers to get this new number? Who is profiting from it? How much is going back to the local communities? What is the forcast and what is it based on? Irvine is the #1 lobbiest in Augusta…..hmmmm…..
Downeaster to Bangor?
But first the tracks would half to be up graded so the train could go 40 mph or faster
Better then 5 MPH before it derails.
Nah, you have to think BIG!
I wish we had the passenger demand to bring something like this back: http://www.streamlinerschedules.com/concourse/track3/potatoland195407.html though it didn’t make the best time, owing to all those flag stops.
They also would need a passenger train station in Bangor which was torn down years ago, sadly.
It was torn down because no one used it for transportation. Better get out of your dream world. Passenger trains to where? Who will use it? Ten people a day, Maybe? A Bus is cheaper , faster and many many more scheduled per day.
I have seen few places where reliable train service has been installed and it has not done a great job. They would need to do some non-stops (or limited stops) to make it effective and also use something like the new DMU’s seen at http://www.usrailcar.com/
My dream world is for the future, not the past. I heard the same complaint about the Downeaster, now doing 5 round-trips per day. You need to have infrastructure in-place for people to setup businesses and use them. Look at the new terminal in Brunswick – new condos, retaurants, and stores have been created as a result of the new terminal.
It’s a chicken-and-egg thing. Build it, and they will come.
not enough traffic volume, I think Bangor is best served by Bus. a Downeaster train from Bangor to Boston would need to make so many stops to pickup additional passengers the trip would take 20 hours!
Maybe we need irving and the state dot to take over the turnpike and the east west highway maybe they could build up the rail system and not raise tolls they seem to be doing a pretty good job with out any helpfrom the big gov.sponsered contractors.
That video is so awesome!!!!!!!!
You all work so hard at what you do.. THANK YOU Irving for taking over and making a 100% ++ turn around for the RR and thank you to all the guys that work so hard.!!! They could not do it without you..
More Derailments just waiting to happen. Better hope Irving isn’t transporting oil sand sludge in one of those trains when it derails near a Maine lake or river.
Well lets see—-where to start:
1-At the cost of trucking jobs, logs moving to Canada Irving mill across from Van Buren) by rail that use to be mill in Aroostook County.
2-Loss of wages (as well as tax dollars-Federal, state and local) for the mils and workers that use to be in in the state of Maine (opps, I forgot, Northern Maine is not part of Maine).
3-Loss of jobs in related field (truck sales, fuel–forgot there also, Irving has station in Maine–, maintaining trucks, tires, etc.).
4-The closing of lumber mills that use to employ people in Maine that paid Federal taxes, state taxes, into the S.S. system,ETC.
Yep—–forgot how great it is to have Irving!!!
what a shame that they cant repair a rail crossing near the madawaska border bridge and twin rivers papers,,the worse rail crossing maintenance i,ve seen in the state, what are they waiting for ,??= an accident to happen or what??
I would like to see the before and after numbers to see just how muchthe traffic increased. If i had to wait seven weeks for something to be delivered by rail i would be shipping by truck as it can be there overnight and not a day and a half later. And when the Surface transportation board did the impact study while the other company was seeking abandonment they showed that 90% of all freight was being transported then by truck. So just how much of an increase are we talking here anyway.
madawaska have the most pityful rail crossing near the border bridge,,traffic almost come to a crawl across that crossing , incredible,complete stupidity from the maintenance group,
if bussiness is this good in maine ,i really dont understand why they cant fix the railroad crossing at the madawaska border crossing to canada ,near the custom house and twin rivers papers. its a mess out there,a real shame for the railroad compagny,,the worse railroad crossing i,ve seen in the state, looks like they wont fix this crossing until somebody gets hurt on a motorcycle or such, this is pityful,
That Video Is Really Cool…I wish We Had The Train Come All The Way To Northern Maine…Im Taking The Train For The First Time Soon To Go To Florida…. But Then I Have To Drive 7 Hours To Get To The Train In Portland And Same 7 Hour Ride Comming Home…I Would Take The Train Here In Northern Maine If I Could…Its A Long 7 hour Drive..
They need to use the railway to get more work up to Loring
Successful railroad? Let’s spend $2,000,000,000 on that east-west road and get that freight back on the pavement!
Isn’t this the same line that MMA claimed was unprofitable? It makes a big difference if you service the customers instead of trying to run trains with remotes and one man crews.