St. Lawrence & Atlantic Railroad (SLR/SLQ)

For list members that receive WMUR TV9, they
are having a story on the closing of the Cascade
mill on the 5 PM News this evening (10/13/10).
In a "teaser" comment on the noon news, it was
mentioned that there was a "Manchester
Investment Group" that was planning to buy the
mill, but that deal had fallen through.

Cowford wrote:4266, I'm only trying to make the point that Maine has two (essentially) parallel lines (the Mountain and the SLR) ~35 miles apart; one is long-dead, and the other is in decline. If the argument to rehab the former is valid, then it stands to reason that economic development along the latter would be noticeably stronger, because there is already a viable line there, open for- and in need of- business. But it's not, is it? Outside of L-A, it looks like on-line business is down to NEPW in S Paris and Mechanic Falls, and Maine Wood Treaters in Mechanic Falls... despite several other forest products operations being located adjacent to the line... is this correct? The more alarming aspect of the line's future is that if the line is closed as an overhead route and pruned back to a 20-mile Danville Jct-S Paris branch, the lack of its competitive outlet to the west with erode the remaining business further.

The difference between the Mountain and the SLR is that the latter is still a through route between Portland and Montreal. I doubt that even the foamiest supporter of reopening the Mountain Division in Maine is seriously proposing restored through freight service all the way to St. Johnsbury and Canada. G&W management seems pretty savvy- I'd imagine they realize that the value of their investment would diminish dramatically if the SLR becomes a branch line with Pan Am as the sole interchange partner.

Heard on the radio yesterday that the Gorham mill was to close at midnight lastnight (Oct. 13) putting around 250 employees out of work. A tentative date with the courts for the sale I believe is the 21st of Oct., if I remember correctly.


Mike

For crying out loud... Just when you thought there weren't any more jobs left to lose! I know we New Englanders arent exactly known for our optimistic traits, but this is getting ridiculous!

Came across this in my e mail this morning thought I would pass it on. Rail Transit Information Meeting Scheduled
>
> The Town of Gorham is pleased to announce that it is sponsoring an
> informational session regarding rail service along the St. Lawrence &
> Atlantic Railway Corridor, on Monday, November 29 at 6:00PM. at the Town &
> Country Motor Inn. All are invited to attend.
>
> Over the past several months there has been a great deal of activity
> regarding rail service. The Bethel Area Chamber of Commerce has formed a
> Rail Transportation Committee that has begun to meet regularly. Gorham has
> been involved in these discussions and is part of the Bethel Committee.
> At this meeting we hope to provide further information and encourage local
> participation.
>
> Featured Guest Speaker will be Anthony Donovan of the Maine Rail Transit
> Coalition. Mr. Donovan and his group are headquartered in Portland, Maine.
> One of their objectives is to work with communities, property owners, and
> business owners along the St. Lawrence & Atlantic Railway Corridor to
> develop an action plan for passenger rail service from Portland and
> Auburn, Maine to Bethel, Maine and beyond, through Gorham, NH and on to
> Montreal. Another goal of the Maine Rail Transit Coalition is to support
> established businesses and generate new business and economic development
> along the rail corridor. For more information about the Maine Rail Transit
> Coalition see
> http://mainerailtransit.org/maine_rail_ ... lcome.html .
> For further information contact, Gorham Town Manager Robin Frost at
> 466-3322 or David Graham at 752-7249.
>

--



NNESBA
www.nnesba.com

Hmmm... when did SLR changes its name from railroad to railway?

BigFreight, I got a "404 not found" when clicking the link you posted. I don't know if the capital letters make a difference, but I found it at <http://mainerailtransit.org/Maine_Rail_ ... lcome.html>.
Interesting pic there of Maine Eastern's snowplow.

MEC407 wrote:Hmmm... when did SLR changes its name from railroad to railway?

At the top of the list of Recent Projects on their home page, it's referred to as "St Lawrence and Atlantic Rail Road."
Their map for the "Passenger Service Proposal 2010" seems to show the old wye at Crowley's on the Lewiston Lower (I guess at least parts of it might still be there), and the "loop track" (kind of a ?-shape) on an old industrial property on the LL.

This looks interesting. I think I'll go read the blog.
Thanks for the info.

I love MRTC's selected pics for their website homepage: A snowplow and moribund track. To sell 21st century transit concepts. Nice.
An excerpt from the photos page:

"This is the abandoned Lewiston Branch RR line. Along with the Former Grand Trunk RR station. The MRTC want to reconnect this line from downtown Lewiston to the Auburn Airport with a rail shuttle that could run every half hour. Expanding services to the Airport and making it accessable to thousand (sic) of people without cars."

L-A Municipal Airport has only charter service, and to my knowledge, no plans to introduce commercial service. Maybe I'm slow on the uptake, but I can't get my arms around how the "thousands of people without cars" can afford to charter Beechcraft King Airs. And to where are they flying, by the way? If it's REALLY needed, here's a crazy thought: How about having LATC to extend their no. 5 bus route to the airport? 15 minute ride from downtown, capital investment needed: Virtually zero... and the bus could drop you right at the "terminal," not 1/10 mile from it, like the train would.

Yeah, that airport thing is a bit of a stretch, considering that they don't even have any sort of commercial service there. Heck, the airport in Augusta is downgrading their commercial service from a 34-passenger US Airways Express turboprop to a 9-passenger Cape Air Cessna. That should give you an idea of what the potential commercial air market at Auburn would be.

If people without cars in the Lewiston-Auburn area are so desperate for ways to access air travel, they should propose some kind of shuttle bus to Portland. I'm sorry, but anything else is ridiculous and a waste of money.

Cowford wrote:I love MRTC's selected pics for their website homepage: A snowplow and moribund track. To sell 21st century transit concepts. Nice.

I think the "moribund track" photo is one of the ones from their album about the Mountain Div., and how the rail-trail is contributing to erosion of the trackbed in that area. I think they're not big fans of rail-with-trail.
Okay, the snowplow isn't a 21st century concept, but it's still a pretty effective method of clearing the track. Brooms, rotary plows, and jet snow-blowers were around before the 21st century, too.

As for the rest of it, you may be right. And as always, we can count on you to post a list of reasons why any idea for returning any rail line to the use for which it was built just won't work.

"the snowplow isn't a 21st century concept, but it's still a pretty effective method of clearing the track"

(For some reason none of the radio buttons is working for me, so I can't edit in a quote, per se... only cut-and-paste.)

It sure is, but wouldn't you find it odd if document cover pages associated with Portland Jetport's expansion project featured pics of a weedy, abandoned runway, an airport plow truck, and a broken-down old DC-3?

"And as always, we can count on you to post a list of reasons why any idea for returning any rail line to the use for which it was built just won't work."

In this specific example, the Lewiston branch, Mountain sub, etc. etc. did host passenger rail until the 50s, but that line was built for freight. Yeah, I'm the eternal devil's advocate on these projects. I don't mean to be a Debbie Downer, but with suggestions of rail shuttles on 30-minute headways between downtown Lewiston and a non-commercial airport, I can't help myself!

Cowford wrote: Yeah, I'm the eternal devil's advocate on these projects. I don't mean to be a Debbie Downer, but with suggestions of rail shuttles on 30-minute headways between downtown Lewiston and a non-commercial airport, I can't help myself!

Can't help but agree with you. Rail transportation is not always the answer everyone thinks it is.

Mike

Cowford wrote:"the snowplow isn't a 21st century concept, but it's still a pretty effective method of clearing the track"

(For some reason none of the radio buttons is working for me, so I can't edit in a quote, per se... only cut-and-paste.)

"Quote" seems to be the only one working for me right now; gotta do the "open-brackets/close-brackets" trick on italics and everything else.

It sure is, but wouldn't you find it odd if document cover pages associated with Portland Jetport's expansion project featured pics of a weedy, abandoned runway, an airport plow truck, and a broken-down old DC-3?

Not disagreeing with you there. I'm glad, though, that they didn't go to the other extreme and "airbrush-in" a TGV or something, running flat-out up the Back Road or wherever.

In this specific example, the Lewiston branch, Mountain sub, etc. etc. did host passenger rail until the 50s, but that line was built for freight. I don't mean to be a Debbie Downer, but with suggestions of rail shuttles on 30-minute headways between downtown Lewiston and a non-commercial airport, I can't help myself!

No argument there, either. I'd like to see the lines back in operation, but . . .

Yeah, I'm the eternal devil's advocate on these projects.

It's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it.

I'm suddenly reminded of one of the road signs on Route 1 in Biddeford for the Biddeford Municipal Airport. The sign has the silhouette of a 747 on it. They would need to at least TRIPLE the length of their runway in order for a 747 to actually land or take off there!

Delusions of grandeur, much?

I agree, rebuilding the Lewiston Branch to connect downtown to KLEW would be silly. Most of the rail ideas I have seen around L/A have focused on a terminal on SLR in the area of the airport; this has the advantages of (presumably) plenty of parking space and being on the mainline to Bethel and Montreal. Extending passenger service to downtown Lewiston via the branch, presumably in hopes of leveraging transit-oriented development, would (I think, going by Google Maps) first require restoration of the grade crossing at Washington Street. Beyond that, the choices would be to try to restore the branch through to the old bridge (now the footbridge) and have a station either in or near the historic GT station on the island near the Bates Mill complex, or else build a new junction with PAR, cross the Androscoggin via their existing bridge and presumably have a station in the general vicinity of the old MEC station (or at least what I think is the area of the old MEC station, on Bates Street or High Street here). The GT routing would require the rebuilding of more track (and converting the ROW back from a trail), but the station would be on a section of line that is otherwise idle, the adjacent Bates Mill complex has already begun being redeveloped, and there is at least a (perhaps out-of-date) perception that G&W is easier to deal with on passenger issues than PAR. The PAR/MEC routing would require much much less laying of track, but the potential station location (at least the one I identified) might be a harder sell for redevelopment due to it being so run-down and it is also directly on the PAR mainline. Of course, if the MEC station location were preferred, then it could be possible for trains to downtown Lewiston to skip the airport and Lewiston Branch entirely and just switch to PAR at Danville.