Resolve, Directing the Department of Transportation to Implement the Recommendation of the Calais Branch Rail Use Advisory Council to Create a Multi-use Trail

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132nd MAINE LEGISLATURE
FIRST REGULAR SESSION-2025
Legislative Document No. 956
S.P. 415 In Senate, March 11, 2025
Resolve, Directing the Department of Transportation to Implement
the Recommendation of the Calais Branch Rail Use Advisory
Council to Create a Multi-use Trail
Received by the Secretary of the Senate on March 6, 2025. Referred to the Committee on
Transportation pursuant to Joint Rule 308.2 and ordered printed.
DAREK M. GRANT
Secretary of the Senate
Presented by Senator MOORE of Washington.
Cosponsored by Representative MINGO of Calais and
Representatives: MCINTYRE of Lowell, STROUT of Harrington, TUELL of East Machias.

Page 1 - 132LR1341(01)
1Preamble. Whereas, the State Railroad Preservation and Assistance Act requires
2 the Department of Transportation to seek legislative approval for any conversion of a state-
3 owned rail corridor in which the department controls the right-of-way to a nonrail
4 recreational or nonrecreational transportation use; and
5Whereas, the law allows the Commissioner of Transportation to establish a rail
6 corridor use advisory council upon petition of one or more entities; and
7Whereas, the Department of Transportation received letters of support from all
8 communities along the rail corridor requesting the formation of a rail corridor use advisory
9 council; and
10Whereas, the Calais Branch Rail Use Advisory Council convened and met for 8
11 months in 2024; and
12Whereas, ten of the 11 Calais Branch Rail Use Advisory Council members, with one
13 member abstaining, voted to recommend the interim conversion of the existing railroad
14 track to a multi-use trail; and
15Whereas, the State Railroad Preservation and Assistance Act further provides that
16 once the Commissioner of Transportation receives a report from a rail corridor use advisory
17 council that includes a recommendation of track removal or other change for interim
18 nonrail use and the commissioner concurs with that recommendation, the commissioner
19 shall seek legislative approval of the recommendation by submitting legislation to the joint
20 standing committee of the Legislature having jurisdiction over transportation matters prior
21 to track removal or the other change for nonrail use; and
22Whereas, any track removal or other change for nonrail use is considered interim in
23 nature and rail corridors are to be preserved for future rail use as provided under the State
24 Railroad Preservation and Assistance Act; now, therefore, be it
25Sec. 1. Calais Branch rail trail recommendation. Resolved: That, consistent
26 with the majority recommendation of the Calais Branch Rail Use Advisory Council, 12.26
27 miles of inactive existing track material from the Route 214 intersection in Ayers Junction
28 in Pembroke to Route 1 in Calais must be removed and replaced with a multi-use trail on
29 the existing railbed. The completed multi-use trail is interim in nature, and the project to
30 create the multi-use trail is subject to available funding resources, permitting and municipal
31 agreements.
32SUMMARY
33 This resolve requires, consistent with the majority recommendation of the Calais
34 Branch Rail Use Advisory Council, that 12.26 miles of inactive existing railroad track
35 material from the Route 214 intersection in Ayers Junction in Pembroke to Route 1 in
36 Calais must be removed and replaced with a multi-use trail on the existing railbed.
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