AUGUSTA — As a boy growing up in Winthrop, Rep. Tavis Hasenfus remembers hearing about the heyday of passenger rail service that brought tourists to local hotels and served as an economic engine for his small lakeside town.
Today, trains still travel through Winthrop, but instead of passengers, they haul freight on recently upgraded lines.
And while passenger service may never return to his neck of the woods, Hasenfus told fellow lawmakers Thursday that maybe it can provide a new link between Portland and Orono, home to the University of Maine.
He urged them to back a new bill directing the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority to apply for federal funds to study the new rail corridor. Congress already approved the funds through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, he said.
“If we don’t do this now, we will forgo this opportunity forever,” he told members of the Transportation Committee. “This really is the absolute last chance for the state to get passenger rail to northern Maine.”
His bill, LD 487, was one of two passenger rail-related measures considered on Thursday. The other — sponsored by Sen. Peggy Rotundo (D-Lewiston) — directs the Maine-Canadian Legislative Advisory Commission to work with Canadian officials to see if a line could link Boston to Montreal.
Rotundo said the bill seeks to require high level policy discussions, not detailed analysis of ridership and other considerations.
“Maine and the Province of Quebec have long been connected through family lineage, trade and international travel,” she said. “Tourism from Canada to Maine and vice versa, has been an economic driver for both sides.”
Nate Moulton, who oversees freight and business logistics for the Maine Department of Transportation, testified neither for nor against Rotundo’s bill.
He said restoring passenger train service to Montreal is not part of the state’s five-year plan for rail operations.
Peter Cole, president of the Maine Rail Group, testified in support of the Hasenfus bill to expand service to Orono.
He said train service is successful in other states, including Vermont, which has two daily passenger trains and only half the population of Maine.
“Trains are booming nationwide, and Maine needs to get on board,” he said.
