Maine Eastern Railroad (MERR) Discussion

Yes, to both questions.

Well, with PAR's up and down service levels, MERR is probably unable to give firm estimates on delivery times, etc. in soliciting new business.

MEC407 wrote:Ditto for the Eastern Propane depot in Wells.

It's telling to me that the Suburban Propane depot in Portland, with built-in rail service and directly across from the passenger station, isn't currently using rail and is supposed to be moving to Riverside St. where there's no hope of rail service at all.

markhb wrote:

MEC407 wrote:Ditto for the Eastern Propane depot in Wells.

It's telling to me that the Suburban Propane depot in Portland, with built-in rail service and directly across from the passenger station, isn't currently using rail and is supposed to be moving to Riverside St. where there's no hope of rail service at all.

Even at larger terminals Suburban seems to have abandoned all desire to use rail. I remain surprised by this.

Suburban pulled away from rail service at terminals throughout their network, not just in New England, years ago. I believe it was to be more focused on the retail end of the business, using wholesale distributors to deliver propane to their terminals by truck from larger rail- and pipeline-served locations.

From the Aug. 14 BDN article: "Maine Eastern Railroad General Manager Harmony Llanto declined to comment Thursday on whether the company submitted a proposal. Earlier this year, Llanto said the company would submit one."

From a post on another list, M&E is advertising for engineers, conductors, track workers, and other personnel in Rockland. The closing date for the job postings is Oct. 13.

Yeah I can't even count on two hands how many Suburban terminals have rail access but don't use it.

CMQ appears to have won the contract....

Well that's interesting. I had no idea they were one of the bidders.

From the Portland Press Herald:

Portland Press Herald wrote:Central Maine & Quebec Railway on Wednesday won the right to lease the state-owned rail line between Brunswick and Rockland and operate freight service on it.
. . .
Central Maine & Quebec will take over the rail line Jan. 1. The company has no plans to offer passenger service, said Ted Talbot, spokesman for the transportation department.
. . .
Central Maine & Quebec Railway and the state will now negotiate the financial terms of the lease agreement, Talbot said.

Read the rest of the article at: http://www.pressherald.com/2015/09/02/r ... imperiled/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This is not good. Loosing the Maine Eastern will do nothing to help tourism.
After all the work they put into the railroad and the area, ME deserves better.

What a shame. I'd love to know the reasoning behind the decision, but I imagine the state is tight-lipped about it.

I'm assuming the state has "opened the bid envelopes" and told CMQ that they are the winner & MERR is the loser. Perhaps they are in a review phase or negotiation phase where they don't announce the results because they aren't final-final. Or they want to have a press conference after labor day.

I guess this answers the question of when the M420 will be painted.

Oh well. It was nice knowing you, Maine Eastern.

So the CMQ gets to operate freight over all that nice ribbon rail the state paid for and doesn't have to operate passenger service? How does that make sense...

ok...what industry is in rockland?