The Maine Department of Transportation has chosen a Unity company to operate the freight railroad line that stretches from Brunswick to Rockland.
Maine Switching Services currently repairs rail cars and provides car switching services to paper mills in Rumford and Skowhegan. According to the DOT, the company plans to resume freight service this spring along the Rockland Branch Railroad and plans to offer scenic train excursions by the fall.
But Maine Switching Services has not offered to operate passenger rail service along the line, meaning a proposal to extend Amtrak Downeaster service from Brunswick to Rockland remains on hold for now.
The Rockland line's previous operator, Midcoast Railservice, ceased operations in August after Dragon Cement in Thomaston stopped production. Dragon Cement was the freight line's largest customer — representing more than 90% of the freight service — as well as a major employer and taxpayer in the midcoast town.
A subsidiary of the German company Heidelberg Materials announced in November that it had negotiated a purchase agreement of the parent company of Dragon Cement.
Midcoast Railservice had been working with the Maine DOT, Amtrak and Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority to launch the long-planned passenger rail service between Brunswick and Rockland. But company officials said they could no longer make the service work financially after losing Dragon Cement as a freight client.
