Bill Summary – FastDemocracy

                                                                 APPROVED                 CHAPTER
                                                                 JUNE 20, 2025                 95
                                                                BY GOVERNOR               RESOLVES
                                  STATE OF MAINE
                                          _____
                          IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD
                        TWO THOUSAND TWENTY-FIVE
                                          _____
                                    S.P. 46 - L.D. 29
  Resolve, to Require the Department of Transportation to Implement the
  Recommendations of the Lower Road Rail Use Advisory Council and the
                 Calais Branch Rail Use Advisory Council
    Preamble. Whereas, the State Railroad Preservation and Assistance Act requires
the Department of Transportation to seek legislative approval for any conversion of a state-
owned rail corridor in which the department controls the right-of-way to a nonrail
recreational or nonrecreational transportation use; and
     Whereas, Public Law 2021, chapter 239 enacted the Maine Revised Statutes, Title
23, section 75, which gives the Commissioner of Transportation the authority to establish
a rail corridor use advisory council upon petition of one or more governmental entities; and
    Whereas, the Department of Transportation received letters of support from
communities along the section of the state-owned rail corridor known as the Lower Road
from Rockland Junction in the Town of Brunswick to the City of Augusta requesting the
formation of a rail corridor use advisory council; and
     Whereas, the Lower Road Rail Use Advisory Council convened and met for 9 months
in late 2022 and 2023; and
     Whereas, 11 of the 14 members of the Lower Road Rail Use Advisory Council voted
to recommend the interim conversion of 33.5 miles of existing railroad track to a stone dust
or paved bicycle and pedestrian trail; and
    Whereas, the Department of Transportation received letters of support from
communities along the section of the state-owned rail corridor known as the Calais Branch
requesting the formation of a rail corridor use advisory council; and
    Whereas, the Calais Branch Rail Use Advisory Council convened and met over a
period of 8 months in 2024; and
    Whereas, 10 of the 11 Calais Branch Rail Use Advisory Council members, with one
member abstaining, voted to recommend the interim conversion of the existing railroad
track to a multi-use trail; and
                                   Page 1 - 132LR0134(03)
     Whereas, the State Railroad Preservation and Assistance Act further requires that,
once the Commissioner of Transportation receives a report from a rail corridor use advisory
council that includes a recommendation of track removal or other change for interim
nonrail use and the commissioner concurs with that recommendation, the commissioner
seek legislative approval of the recommendation by submitting legislation to the joint
standing committee of the Legislature having jurisdiction over transportation matters prior
to the track removal or other change for interim nonrail use; and
    Whereas, any track removal or other change for nonrail use is considered interim in
nature and rail corridors are to be preserved for future rail use as provided under the State
Railroad Preservation and Assistance Act; now, therefore, be it
    Sec. 1. Trail construction on Lower Road. Resolved: That, based on the
majority recommendation of the Lower Road Rail Use Advisory Council and pursuant to
the Maine Revised Statutes, Title 23, section 7107, the Department of Transportation shall,
subject to available funding resources, permitting and municipal agreements, remove state-
owned inactive existing railroad track along the section known as the Lower Road between
the Town of Brunswick and the City of Gardiner to the existing Kennebec River Rail Trail,
and a portion of the rail line in the City of Hallowell, and replace the track with an interim
bicycle and pedestrian trail surfaced with pavement or stone dust on the existing rail bed.
    Sec. 2. Calais Branch rail trail recommendation. Resolved: That, consistent
with the majority recommendation of the Calais Branch Rail Use Advisory Council and
pursuant to the Maine Revised Statutes, Title 23, section 7107, the Department of
Transportation shall remove 12.26 miles of state-owned inactive existing railroad track
along the section known as the Calais Branch from the Route 214 intersection in Ayers
Junction in the Town of Pembroke to Route 1 in the City of Calais and replace the track
with a multi-use trail on the existing rail bed. The completed multi-use trail is interim in
nature, and the project to create the multi-use trail is subject to available funding resources,
permitting and municipal agreements.
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