Rockland Branch Discussion

There’s apparently one interested operator, name hasn’t been disclosed but they were supposedly heading down the line today on a hi-rail truck alongside a MEDOT hi-rail.

We will see, but I have heard something about the BML/Maine Switching being the interested party.

https://www.midcoastvillager.com/news/f ... TusiubIlaA

Stephen Betts wrote:
ROCKLAND — The Maine Department of Transportation received five proposals from companies that want to operate the rail line that runs from Brunswick to Rockland.

The state wants proposals to include offering limited passenger service.

The state, however, is not identifying the companies or individuals who submitted proposals unless and until a selection is made.

"Releasing the names before we make a decision about the RFP could potentially provide an advantage or disadvantage to one or more of the RFP respondents," transportation department spokesman Paul Merrill said Nov. 18.

Wow! Five offers is awesomely unexpected.

Did Golden Eagle Railway company hit accidentally "send" five times?

Did Golden Eagle Railway company hit accidentally "send" five times?

.

In all seriousness, I'm curious to know what the bids were. The RFP asks for freight operators and passenger operators, so I'd love to know if there are serious freight proposals or if it's all passenger related.

Looking at the RFP, which includes estimated annual car counts for the remaining potential freight customers, I'm struggling to see how any shortline operator could break even in this situation, let alone turn a profit. The only entity that might be able to make it work, in my estimation, is CSX, simply because they'd have the advantages of interchanging with themselves, crews and power could be based at Rigby, superior buying power than any shortline operator, existing in-house marketing and customer service departments, not needing to hire additional people, not needing to lease or acquire rolling stock, and perhaps the biggest advantage of all: they could easily and seamlessly dispatch the future Downeaster Brunswick-to-Rockland service, which would be perfect because they already dispatch Brunswick-to-Boston.

The problem, however, is that CSX might not want to do any of that. They don't do things just to break even.

Not sure if either one of the two put bids in, but I know the BML was interested and AmeriStarRail reached out to some former CMQ and Maine Eastern guys to see what there was for potential customers.

The only remaining potential customers are Dicaperl, BIW, and possibly a temporary situation with Dragon that would involve shipping out scrap metal and dirty dirt if/when the plant is completely shut down and disassembled. That's it. This myth that an ambitious shortline operator could knock on doors and drum up new business is never going to happen. The last SIX operators tried that and all six of them failed.

Now that we are past the election, if the economy improves I am wondering what the possibility of Dragon reopening is.
It all depends on if the operational costs go down I guess, but they reopened the quarry side of the operation not too long ago.
As for potential customers it was either Dead River or Maritime Energy, but one of the two wanted to put a LPG transload in somewhere during FGLK's lease.
From the messages I had with Tim Chalifour this spring he made it sound like one of the two wanted to put something in, but the timeline wasn't going to workout before they (FGLK) had to pull the plug.

Dragon won't reopen. They were burning dirty coke, with the impurities being absorbed by the limestone, but still facing emission problems, plus it was costly to haul in. They tried to get a gas line to the plant, but the town declined it.

The sad reality is it's cheaper to import cement from Europe than produce it here.

...I know the BML was interested and AmeriStarRail reached out to some former CMQ and Maine Eastern guys to see what there was for potential customers.

To reiterate the point 407 and others made, there simply isn't traffic potential. LPG transloading sounds great, but the MidCoast is surrounded by LPG transload terminals - in the Portland, Lewiston, Bangor and (now) Waterville areas.

I had to look up AmeriStarRail. While they have one known entity, Advisor PH Reistrup, but he's 91 years old. The other advisor is also in his 90s. Not being ageist, but... I challenge anyone to look at their website and figure out their business model. They literally look like a sophisticated Golden Eagle Railway Company. As for BML, it hits home that the branch would be a wonderful tourist railroad. But a tourist railroad that has to host Amtrak and provide Amtrak's required insurance coverage? BML securing a $325 million liability insurance policy? Not likely.

I wonder how much cheaper it will be to import cement from Europe after promised tariffs are put into play.

Giant Cement (the owners of Dragon Cement) manufactures all its cement in South Carolina.