The Legislature is currently considering a bill, LD 30, that would authorize removal of 25 miles of state-owned rail line from Portland to Auburn and replace it with a pedestrian trail costing at least $1 million a mile for which no funding is currently available.

This would be a serious mistake, and the Legislature should reject or at least amend it to prohibit the use of state funds to remove rail.

To begin with, this is the St. Lawrence & Atlantic Railroad — not the “Berlin Subdivision” — offering a direct rail link since the 1850s from Portland’s waterfront at the Ocean Gateway Terminal to Montreal, connecting Maine’s largest metro region to Quebec.

Most of the line is still in use for freight service, which until 2014 extended to the old B&M Bean plant, now the Roux Institute. To call it “unused” is a misnomer and much of the line remains in good condition.

It’s primarily double tracked, meaning a trail could be built alongside the railroad, as Maine has already done in six other locations, including Portland. The Narrow Gauge Railroad operates alongside a Casco Bay trail with no problems and frequent friendly exchanges between walkers and train passengers.

The legislation also misrepresents the Rail Use Advisory Council’s report that forms the basis of the rail removal proposal. In 2023, the council split three ways, with no alternative receiving a majority.

Maine DOT did not proceed with legislation, saying there was no consensus. Two years later, the DOT claims a majority in favor of removal, an assertion not supported by the council’s report or deliberations.

Maine purchased the state-owned lines through voter-approved bond issues and passed the Railroad Preservation Act in 1988 making rail the priority use, despite the amendment proposed in LD 30.

Two other rail lines the DOT declared unused and recommended for removal — the Mountain Division from Portland’s west end to Fryeburg and the Augusta Lower Road from Brunswick to Gardiner — already have proposals from rail operators for freight and eventually excursion passenger service.

Conway Scenic Railroad, operating on 40 miles of rebuilt track from its North Conway, New Hampshire, yard, wants to rebuild the Mountain Division section in Maine at its own expense. This would be a win-win that would direct freight traffic onto the CSX national system from more than 20 businesses along the line.

The newly renamed Cumberland & Knox Railroad, based in Unity, is now the operator of the state-owned Rockland Branch. It will soon resume freight service and could offer Amtrak excursion trains as early as this summer.

The Cumberland & Knox proposal for the Lower Road is similar. The company has an immediate need for track in Brunswick and Topsham, where the DOT allowed use by the previous operator to alleviate congestion at the Brunswick junction used by both Amtrak and CSX trains.

The St. Lawrence & Atlantic could offer similar service in the relatively near future. The thousands of passengers disembarking daily from cruise ships and ferries could support light rail service to Yarmouth, with a cross-platform connection to the Downeaster.

Make no mistake: rail removal in no way constitutes “interim use,” as LD 30 claims. Once rail is removed, it is highly unlikely rail service will ever return. Track-setting machinery needed to replace ties and track operates on rails; without them, construction would have to start from scratch at far greater expense.

Whatever economic benefits trails can offer, rail’s are many times greater. Across the country, states are expanding freight and passenger rail. Colorado just signed a new lease to bring ski trains from Denver to famed resorts like Winter Park and Steamboat Springs — trains Portland also once had.

Major benefits of rail for energy savings and emission reductions, downtown redevelopment and housing and an economic boost for the entire state must be preserved. We support rail-with-trail construction on state-owned lines, which LD 30 would needlessly throw away.