CONWAY — Freight service returning to the abandoned Mountain Division tracks from North Conway to Portland, Maine?
No, this is not a late Conway Daily Sun April Fool’s joke. It’s a proposal — more of a dream, at this point, say some — by Conway Scenic owner/president David Swirk.
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(3) comments
Thank you to the Conway Daily Sun for sharing both sides of this story. The Conway Scenic false claims that this is possible by them is so far fetched they are wasting their time and everyone else’s.
Things not mentioned in the article:
Windham has a section of no tracks! Yes no tracks, almost all roads have paved over the tracks and road crossing need all new equipment(very expensive).
Bridges- the trail until rail studies have evaluated the bridges for pedestrian traffic and they need a lot of work, imagine how much for a train. Millions of dollars are needed for bridges alone.
The Conway Scenic mentions the freight customers, but there were none at the public meeting last week. That’s because there isn’t any. Even if there was one that is not enough traffic to warrant all of this rail work.
Rail with trail would be great, but…it’s 20x more expensive to construct, environmentally destructive, and near impossible to do on the full rail corridor due to the narrow causeways the rail is over. And of course it doesn’t make sense to spend all of that money if the railroad isn’t going to be used.
Rail with trail is being fought by Conway Scenic in NH, so their solution in Maine is actually what they don’t want in NH? Hmm maybe they don’t want a trail at all.
The MDOT has $11 million in its workplan for construction, the bill LD 676 is just an account. Too much stock has been made by Conway Scenic that this is some grand funding bill, it’s not at all. It’s unlikely to be used and doesn’t provide any money in the interim.
In short, the rails are coming up, a trail until rail is going down(as early as next year) and the MDOT is paying for it.
The trail will be the best thing to happen to these towns it crosses.
It is very odd that trail fans with zero business acumen, now claim to have legitimate freight handling experience. Even more wierd, understand railroad engineering and construction. Every day in America, rail is put down again.
There are plenty of roads and trails already to bike, run, and hike on that won’t cost the exorbitant amount to rip up a rail corridor and make it a trail
Everyone benefits from lower energy costs! Bring back the rail!
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