|Pamela Fischer, Casco Bay Trail Alliance| A Refresher The 25-mile anchor of the Casco Bay Trail vision is a rail trail on the St. Lawrence and Atlantic (also known as Berlin Subdivision) corridor through Portland, Falmouth, Cumberland, Yarmouth, North Yarmouth, Pownal, New Gloucester, and Auburn. Over the last year, a Rail Use Advisory Council studied all possible uses of the corridor and issued a report recommending trail use. But the Maine legislature also needs to authorize its use as a trail. This authorization is no slam dunk. The nuance (and controversy) is about whether this should be a standard rail trail or a rail-with-trail. A rail-with-trail design raises the trail construction cost considerably and introduces potentially prohibitive environmental complications through the Royal River watershed. The CBTA believes that a rail-with-trail design is unnecessary, because there is another still-active rail corridor that makes perfect sense to prioritize for train use between Portland and Lewiston-Auburn. Thus, the best way to achieve the goals of “rail with trail” is to prioritize the active Amtrak & CSX tracks for trains and to prioritize the unused SLA corridor as a rail trail. Next Steps The SLA (aka Berlin Subdivision) corridor cannot be used as a rail trail without legislative authorization. Yarmouth State Representative Art Bell has introduced a bill, LD 209, that provides that authorization. For more information, sign up for our email list and watch for updates on the public hearing for LD209. |
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