(The following appeardd on the Bangor Daily News website on March 20, 2011.)
BANGOR, Maine — The railroad industry’s ability to move huge volumes of goods over long distances is also its biggest enemy in Maine, where a dwindling manufacturing base means customers who need rail transport are becoming too few and too far between.
That reality nearly changed northern Maine forever when the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway announced two years ago that it would abandon 233 miles of tracks in northern Maine that serve some of Aroostook County’s largest employers.
Taxpayers presumably saved the rail line in June 2010 by approving $7 million in borrowing to purchase the tracks. The Maine Department of Transportation is now in the process of selecting a railroad company to keep trains rolling.
The full story is on the Bangor Daily News website.