The Maine Central Railroad Mountain Division

MDOT applied for TIGER grant money for the Mtn (and the port of Eastport), and was denied. There's still funding available?

Cowford wrote:MDOT applied for TIGER grant money for the Mtn (and the port of Eastport), and was denied. There's still funding available?

That's what I thought. That there was only one or maybe two rounds from the stimulus (ARRA). It seems that TIGER is not getting continued as its own program within USDOT with an annual appropriation and a competitive bid process administered by USDOT.

This is all based on discussion that I saw on the Ethan Allen thread in the Amtrak forum. I can't vouch for its accuracy but this might explain gpcog's apparent confidence in at least the possibility of getting futher funding. As I mentioned previously all other programs that I know of do not have sufficient size or scope to meet the remaining needs for the line, which are suspected to be in the $5-$10 million range.

If my guestimate is off and the amount of work left to do is in fact far lower (at least in dollar terms) then some of those programs might be viable, IRAP specifically being one of the best examples.

Down here in New Jersey, when they rebuild the Staten Island line, the NJDOT was resopnsible for installing the grade crossings and equipment so perhaps funding would be coming from the regular MDOT budget.

kilroy wrote:Down here in New Jersey, when they rebuild the Staten Island line, the NJDOT was resopnsible for installing the grade crossings and equipment so perhaps funding would be coming from the regular MDOT budget.

It could and since the Mountain Division is owned by the state in fact it eventually will. However in practice MDOT simply doesn't have the funds to do this kind of work "out of hide" or directly from their general fund appropriations. I would imagine in New Jersey something as small as the Staten Island line is almost a rounding error (please correct me if I'm wrong). Unfortunately up here its not.

Cowford wrote:MDOT applied for TIGER grant money for the Mtn (and the port of Eastport), and was denied. There's still funding available?

The Maine Montreal and Atlantic rehab was also denied funding under the first TIGER round. And then it was resubmitted as MaineDOT's only rail project for TIGER II. And was funded.

I'd be really surprised if this would be approved under any version of the TIGER grant program. I'm assuming any resubmission will be publically announced...

Cowford wrote:I'd be really surprised if this would be approved under any version of the TIGER grant program. I'm assuming any resubmission will be publically announced...

One of the wrinkles of TIGER 3 is that it requires matching money. TIGER 1 didn't and TIGER 2 required some. Apparently TIGER 3 requires more.

Information indicates that TIGER 3 is substantially less competitive than TIGER 1 or TIGER 2. As such the likelihood of a grant getting approved that has matching funding in hand is substantially higher.

What is the ultimate goal of getting the Mountain Division up and into an running in an operational state?

CPF363 wrote:What is the ultimate goal of getting the Mountain Division up and into an running in an operational state?

To allow a proposed pellet mill access to rail for shipment, among other things.

"One of the wrinkles of TIGER 3 is that it requires matching money"

I did a quick search and I see that no match is needed in the case of "rural" grants... whatever rural means in this case. And TIGER 3 applications need to be in by Oct 31, so we'll find out if this is pursued soon enough.

That pellet mill still is in the "proposed" stage, eh?

Cowford wrote:"One of the wrinkles of TIGER 3 is that it requires matching money"

I did a quick search and I see that no match is needed in the case of "rural" grants... whatever rural means in this case. And TIGER 3 applications need to be in by Oct 31, so we'll find out if this is pursued soon enough.

That pellet mill still is in the "proposed" stage, eh?

Construction appears to be contingent on rail access.

That was certainly the case they made in person to the Governor and the Commissioner.

If that's the case, I'd suggest to any readers here with some time to kill to visit Baldwin. Based on what little documentation is floating about, the proposed plant site is on the north/east side of Marston Road. The entrance would be about 1/10 mile off of 113. (On Google Maps, go to the northerly tip of the existing mill's plot and go about 1/2 mile due east, and that's essentially where the pellet mill would appear to sit.) Now, try to figure out how a spur would cross 113 and run into the facility.

If FE Wood has stated that construction is contingent upon railroad access, are they willing to sign a take-or pay with the state, guaranteeing a rail-based revenue stream once operational? Fair is fair.

If the goal of opening the Mountain Division is to get up to a proposed pellet mill, why the need for new welded rail to fill in the gap that was removed by Guilford? Couldn't this rail be used on a line seeing or going to see passengers, for example the Low Road between Brunswick and Augusta for the Downeaster? There is plenty of old rail that is being removed between Brunswick and Portland that could be moved to the portion that was dismantled that would be sufficient to provide service to the pellet mill.

CPF363 wrote:If the goal of opening the Mountain Division is to get up to a proposed pellet mill, why the need for new welded rail to fill in the gap that was removed by Guilford? Couldn't this rail be used on a line seeing or going to see passengers, for example the Low Road between Brunswick and Augusta for the Downeaster? There is plenty of old rail that is being removed between Brunswick and Portland that could be moved to the portion that was dismantled that would be sufficient to provide service to the pellet mill.

Keep in mind the above assumes low car volumes. Others with technical knowledge could probably better judge this but it would be my impression that anything more than semi-weekly service would probably start to wear out old rail very quickly, especially 20, 40, or even 60 car unit trains of pellets.

If we're talking about some kind of "old-fashioned" local shunting one or two hoppers at a time per week then I think the old rail could help. But I don't think that's going to be the case.