MEDOT puts out to bid: Lewiston/Auburn passenger rail!

[BostonUrbEx]

http://www.maine.gov/mdot/contractor-consultant-information/pas/annual.shtml

AUBURN, LEW.-AUB. RL RECONSTR.
Description: Purchase, design, and construct a portion of rail line for future passenger service to Lewiston and Auburn on the Lewiston Auburn Railroad Line near the Auburn Airport.
Program Manager: Norman Baker

$4,430,000 to $5,740,000

[Nexis4jersey]

Thats wonderful news , any indication they will go up to Bangor?

[Corey]

Interesting! I'm curious what this would connect to. The construction advertisement just says "future passenger service to Lewiston and Auburn on the Lewiston Auburn Railroad Line near the Auburn Airport." I assume it somehow connects to some of the old lines that used to run to Portland or other towns.

Edit - Some Google map exploring confirms that this line near the Auburn Airport connects to Portland. This Sun Journal article (http://www.sunjournal.com/news/state/2012/02/25/lewiston-auburn-rail-supporters-make-case-20-milli/1160004) from February also discusses connecting Auburn/Portland and Auburn/Bethel.

[BostonUrbEx]

Details aren't know yet, but I suspect a branch of the Downeaster, personally. Although it could be a scenic railroad like the one that runs out of Brunswick with connection to the Downeaster, although it would probably have the connection in Portland. Either way, sounds exciting.

[Patrick]

This is just a possibility. To my knowledge, the bid is to reconstruct a rail line that could be, in the future, used as passenger rail. This is a step in the right direction, but I don't believe there are any active plans to bring rails this way (although I know a number of people who are stirring things up in this direction and advocating hard for that result). The decision to skip L/A (as it is called colloquially) was political and irritates many in the planning world. Passenger rail should get up here, then I can take the train to work every morning. I live near the Amtrak in Portland and work in "downtown" Auburn.

[FrankLloydMike]

Is the Portland North transit study/plan still going on? I don't know a ton about the area, but with the Downeaster continuing up to Brunswick, this seems like it could be a good complementary, maybe smaller rail line between Portland and L/A.

Given the colleges in both Portland and L/A and the general population centers, a rail line connecting the two largest metro areas in the state (is L/A the 2nd or is it Bangor?) seems to make sense. I'm wondering if something like a DMU or even light-rail running through Portland's city center and then out to L/A would make sense. I'm sure there are issues with running light rail on a freight/Amtrak corridor, though.

Again, I'm not familiar with the area really, but what would be the motivation for continuing the line all the way to Bethel? Just looking at the route on a map, it doesn't seem like there would be enough demand for such a line. Even between Portland and L/A there's a large swath of rural land in New Gloucester, North Yarmouth and Cumberland that probably wouldn't make sense for rail except for being between Portland and L/A. It's too bad a relatively dense place like Westbrook wasn't on the route.

[Corey]

^I had almost forgotten about the Portland North transit planning, I haven't heard too much about that lately. Doesn't look like much new material on their website (http://www.maine.gov/mdot/portlandnorth/index.htm), although it mentions the Portland/Auburn rail corridor so maybe the track that will be renovated is related to that project. According to the 2010 census, Lewiston alone is the 2nd largest city in the state, and the combined population of Lewiston/Auburn isn't too far behind Portland. So I think there would definitely be some demand. And the reason for connecting to Bethel is likely becase of Sunday River (http://www.sundayriver.com/index.asp) ski resort. I've never been up in that part of Maine and have never been downhill skiing, but I seem to recall there was a "ski train" service from somewhere to Bethel a few years ago. Anyone remember where that connected to?

[PortlandArch]

^I had almost forgotten about the Portland North transit planning, I haven't heard too much about that lately. Doesn't look like much new material on their website (http://www.maine.gov/mdot/portlandnorth/index.htm), although it mentions the Portland/Auburn rail corridor so maybe the track that will be renovated is related to that project. According to the 2010 census, Lewiston alone is the 2nd largest city in the state, and the combined population of Lewiston/Auburn isn't too far behind Portland. So I think there would definitely be some demand. And the reason for connecting to Bethel is likely becase of Sunday River (http://www.sundayriver.com/index.asp) ski resort. I've never been up in that part of Maine and have never been downhill skiing, but I seem to recall there was a "ski train" service from somewhere to Bethel a few years ago. Anyone remember where that connected to?

Yeah but the land area of L/A is something like 80 miles (Auburn alone is 60 I believe) whereas Portland has about 1/3 land area and still 5,000 more people. And the density outside of Portland is higher, too, not to mention the people/demographics are vastly different between the two places. Still a good idea to look into passenger rail there, though.

I believe the Bethel train went from Portland off of Presumpscot St. to Bethel for the skiing as you said.