There are independent railroad services organizations that do Maintenance of Way and dispatching. R.J. Corman Railroad Group is one that gets subcontracted for jobs on state-owned lines in several Northeastern states. It's also not far-fetched to see CSX picking up the 2 remaining freight customers on a shotgun trackage rights agreement if the price is low enough; they've got fast track all the way from Portland, and they'd only have to operate the first half of the Rockland Branch to serve the remaining carloads they already take as far as Brunswick. All easily doable within a local job's crew shift, so their operating costs might be low enough to support the meager carloads. I doubt the branch is going to go completely out-of-service in the interim, though the east end might be collecting some rust while they sort this out.So with NNEPRA looking for Amtrak to take over passenger service on the Rockland Branch, what are the options for MaineDOT? Is there someone they can contract with to handle MOW if there's no freight traffic? What do they need to do for dispatching?
Patricia reported that there have been no updates on the Rockland service but noted that NNEPRA and Amtrak have been working diligently to develop and operating plan and satisfy necessary regulatory requirements. A meeting is scheduled later in the week with Maine DOT to discuss the project. Mr. Nate Moulton commented that the landscape has changed given that Dragon Cement, the major freight customer on the Rockland Branch, has closed. Negotiations with Amtrak and the host railroad will inform the feasibility of the project.
That says they want to keep open the option to run east-west services through the new station, too, I guess along the line to Westbrook. But, really? That sounds pretty far fetched. The only new service I've ever heard proposed is to Lewiston/Auburn, but that's north.NNEPRA presentation on the Union Station siting alternatives: https://www.nnepra.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/2024-08-13-Portland-Train-Station-Slides.pdf
Public comments are welcome until Aug. 27.
Yeah, the case for east-west is hella weak. In addition to Westbrook being too short to serve enough catchment to properly amortize its costs (just run a damn express bus), there's an increasingly high chance that the whole Mountain Branch is going to be a rail trail in due time. The state's already entertaining ripping out all the derelict track from Westbrook to Fryeburg, so there's never going to be any thru traffic. There's only one small customer left on the branch now that the SAPPI paper mill's siding has gone disused (with paved-over grade crossing temporarily severing the mill from any resumed service), and that lone customer (a propane dealer) is being squeezed on all sides by Rock Row mixed-use redevelopment. It's only a matter of time before the propane dealer chooses...or is encouraged by some CSX sweetener...to relocate somewhere along the mainline, and then that'll be it for the branch all points west of PTC.That says they want to keep open the option to run east-west services through the new station, too, I guess along the line to Westbrook. But, really? That sounds pretty far fetched. The only new service I've ever heard proposed is to Lewiston/Auburn, but that's north.
Also, they can't do full-high platforms on both tracks with no freight passing solution. CSX would never allow that on their property given the quantity of high-and-wide traffic that runs north of Rigby Yard. Either it'll need a freight passing track or a gauntlet track (probably a passing track) put into the design.