Map of original full Guilford Raiil system

[dnelson]

What's the current status of the Bangor-Calais line?

PAR owns the first couple thousand feet of it roughly to the I-295 overpass so nobody else can establish freight service on it. MEDOT owns the rest. Downeast Scenic leases the Brewer-Ellsworth section for excursion service (and will probably be allowed into downtown Bangor when their volunteers get done upgrading the rail inch by inch westward). To Calais is MEDOT-owned and railbanked, and mostly trailed. Although the state keeps throwing money at studying kooky restoration schemes.

Never will see a freight train again. One of the worst rail purchases the state ever made.

[jwhite07]

GE45tonner wrote:
What's the current status of the Bangor-Calais line?

PAR owns the first couple thousand feet of it roughly to the I-295 overpass so nobody else can establish freight service on it. MEDOT owns the rest. Downeast Scenic leases the Brewer-Ellsworth section for excursion service (and will probably be allowed into downtown Bangor when their volunteers get done upgrading the rail inch by inch westward). To Calais is MEDOT-owned and railbanked, and mostly trailed. Although the state keeps throwing money at studying kooky restoration schemes.

Rail is gone from just east of the Washington Junction wye in Ellsworth to Ayers Junction in Charlotte, converted to the Down East Sunrise Trail. True, very unlikely to ever see a train again. The Eastport Branch, though there seems to be remote potential for re-railing, is farfetched because it is now also trailed. East of Ayers Junction, rail is still in place, although downtown Calais beyond the Milltown bridge is rail-less now too.

At least there are actually trains on a portion of the west end, even if it is only at present a few miles between Washington Junction and Ellsworth Falls. It's a nice ride, too.