An Ambitious Rail Trail From Portland to Auburn is in the Planning Stages

Since the era of steam locomotives, trains traveled over tracks that ran from Portland to Montreal, carrying goods and people back and forth between the two cities. The portion of this rail line, called the Berlin Sub Division, was owned by Grand Trunk Railroad and later purchased by the Canadian National Railroad. It ran from India Street in Portland to Berlin, New Hampshire, hence the name.

As trucking became a faster way to get from point A to point B and more manufacturing moved overseas in the 1980s, customers along the Berlin Sub started to dwindle. Only one customer was still operating on the Berlin Sub between Portland and Auburn in 2010. B&M Baked Bean still received one hopper every few weeks, which was a loss for the railroad that eventually got permission from the Federal Railroad Commission to stop deliveries and pickups to B&M, causing the Berlin Sub from Portland to Auburn to no longer be used.

Here's a video I shot in 2010 of the single hopper returning to Auburn from B&M, crossing over Main Street in Yarmouth.

Now that the 26 miles of the Berlin Sub is owned by the state of Maine, there is talk from Casco Bay Trail Alliance about converting it to a rail trail. That would mean ripping up the rails and creating 26 miles of walking, hiking, and biking trails. The Mountain Division trail that runs from Windham to Freyburg exits parallel to the former Maine Central Railroad tracks, allowing both the exist. This wouldn't be the case for the Berlin Sub.

I'm a railroad geek who grew up next to the Berling Sub in South Paris and developed a love of trains. I hate to see rails ripped up without any chance of them returning for something like a scenic railroad. The Conway Scenic Railroad is on the Mountain Division and could extend to Fryeburg or even Windham if enough money was invested to make it happen.