The administration of President Joe Biden is sending $28 million to Maine to improve the Amtrak Downeaster passenger rail service, and some of that funding is meant to help restore the service from Brunswick to Rockland after it was cut nearly a decade ago, the administration announced late last week.
The Downeaster now runs 145 miles between Boston and Brunswick, and there have been periodic efforts to extend its service the remaining 57 miles to Rockland — as used to be offered on a seasonal basis until 2015.
The most recent of those efforts came this past summer, when a company called Midcoast Railservice worked with transportation agencies to offer periodic passenger excursions under the name of the Coastliner.
The goal of that initiative was, in part, to assess the viability of offering a more regular passenger service along that stretch of track, with stops in communities such as Bath, Wiscasset and Newcastle.
However, after the Coastliner began offering trips in early August — during the Maine Lobster Festival in Rockland — it had to stop on Oct. 8 after making a final trip during the Damariscotta Pumpkin Festival, according to Midcoast Railservice Vice President George Betke.
In total, the service offered a couple dozen excursions with stops between Brunswick and Rockland. While there seemed to be enthusiastic support from passengers, the train car that operated the Coastliner developed an electromechanical issue that could not be easily fixed, Betke said.
“It’s a disappointment. We thought they were the ideal vehicle for that kind of service,” Betke said. “Everybody liked the vehicle, but the practicality of running it indefinitely … just isn’t appropriate for what, at that point, would be a scheduled service.”
Though the Midcoast Railservice may have lost the Coastliner, the larger effort to bring regular passenger service to the midcoast will get a boost from the new funding that was announced late last week by the Biden administration and Maine Congresswoman Chellie Pingree.
The funding includes $27.5 million to the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority for improvements to the corridor — including helping to “support planned future service expansions” — and another $500,000 to eventually upgrade the service.
If Amtrak expands its service to Rockland, Betke hopes that it could happen soon, and he said that Midcoast Railservice could help to operate the dispatch, perform inspections and provide other services along that part of the route.
For now, Betke said that Midcoast Railservice — which is a subsidiary of New York’s Finger Lakes Railway — has been scrambling to find more customers for the freight side of its business since the announcement of the closure of the Dragon Cement factory in Thomaston.
“[Dragon is] by far the biggest shipper on the railroad, and without which freight service would not be sustainable,” Betke said.
