So far, the early first steps of an effort to bring passenger rail service to the upper Midcoast region have gone well, but organizers say any large-scale operation will not be happening in the immediate future. 

“We’re not going to be able to take giant leaps forward,” said George Betke, co-founder and vice president of Midcoast Railservice.  

The company is focusing on a 57-mile stretch of track from Brunswick to Rockland. The Maine Department of Transportation bought the track in 1987 in order to preserve it for future freight or passenger service. While other companies have run trains in the years since, no one has run passengers on the line since 2015. 

In 2022, Midcoast Rail Service began running freight lines along the track, with an eye toward potential passenger service. This year, according to Betke, the company engaged with the department for what he called an “experiment.” Lasting through the end of 2025, the company will run limited numbers of passenger trains, all to study the feasibility of ongoing passenger rail service in the Brunswick-Rockland corridor. 

The company debuted passenger service during the Maine Lobster Festival in Rockland, on Aug. 2-6, for festival attendees with the “Coastliner,” a train that seats 76 people. Also in August, the company ran several small passenger trips from Wiscasset to Bath. 

“We’ve had a great show for people coming out for walk-up traffic and reservations,” said Deb Fox, Midcoast Railservice’s manager of passenger services and special projects. 

Fox said the service intends to run passengers from Bath to Wiscasset on Oct. 7, and from Bath to Newcastle on Oct. 8 for attendees of the Damariscotta Pumpkinfest. 

Fox said passengers could travel the 57-mile line from Brunswick to Rockland in about two hours, leading to suggestions of all sorts of services that could be available, from routine weekend service to special “rail-sail” packages coordinated with cruise ship companies. The line also begins right at the end of the 145-mile line from Boston served by Amtrak’s “Downeaster” commuter train, leading to speculation about even larger scales of passenger service. 

While Fox and Betke both said nothing is being ruled out, both underscored that such ambitious projects are so far into the future that it’s impossible to say when – or even if – expanded rail service between Brunswick and Rockland will happen. 

Right now, Betke said, the service is focusing on small trips, and studying how well they work financially. Larger projects, he said, would require clearing all manner of regulatory hurdles, along with forging agreements with other groups and even securing government subsidies. 

“It is an uphill climb, and we’re only taking the first couple of steps,” Betke said. 

There’s also the question of whether the public will want such services. After roughly seven years of no passenger service at all, it’s easy for people to forget traveling between Brunswick and Rockland by rail is even possible, Betke said. 

“It’s all a matter of reawakening the public to the fact that there is a potential alternative to some extent (to driving),” he said. 

So far, though, Betke and Fox both said the limited runs have been successful. Betke said as many as 600 passengers filled out electronic surveys, and so far he is encouraged by the results. 

“Their eyes are being opened a bit,” he said.