MAINE PUBLIC • June 13, 2024
Any plans to extend Amtrak’s Downeaster train service to Rockland have been derailed for now. Midcoast Railservice announced they were terminating the lease agreement with the Maine Department of Transportation to operate the Rockland Branch railroad. Midcoast had been implementing plans for a passenger service between Rockland and Brunswick. But last fall, Midcoast lost its largest customer in Dragon Cement in Thomaston after the plant announced it would cease cement production. 93% of Midcoast's freight traffic in 2023 came from Dragon Cement. "The passenger service alone without the freight would never be self-sustaining without public subsidization."