kilroy wrote:I guess MRTC thinks since they wouldn't have to pay for using a highway, they won't have to pay to use the right of way? Rail ain't cheap even if you don't have to build it.
Perhaps a trip to NJ is needed so they can see what real traffic looks like (and yes, I've driven Rt 1 through Wiscasset in the summer).
In this case, the rail they're talking about using is already owned by the state, and the lessee has applied to cease freight operations since they only have one customer, at the very end of the line (the aforementioned B&M Baked Beans plant, and I'd happily make an excursion there if it included a factory tour). So essentially the state owns an existing line that is in some sort of usable shape but is almost totally vacant.
I discovered that they have actually
submitted a TIGER 6 grant for money "for financing the completion and updating of the existing environmental assessment for the extension of passenger rail service from Portland North on the state-owned St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railway."
"...And then I thought, every time some company creates a more powerful locomotive does Superman become more powerful as well or is he stuck at 1938 locomotive power levels?" - A friend of mine elsewhere
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