Maine Eastern Railroad
The Maine Eastern Railroad (MERR) is a local railway company in Maine ( United States ). The head office is in Rockland . The company operates freight traffic and, in summer, passenger traffic on the Brunswick – Rockland railway line (92 km). The company also operates the Brunswick – East Augusta railway (54 km), on which only freight traffic takes place. The tracks are owned by the State of Maine and leased by Maine Eastern. In Brunswick and East Augusta there is a connection to the Pan Am Railways network .
The company was founded on November 1, 2003 as a subsidiary of the New Jersey- based Morristown and Erie Railway . She took over the operational tasks that the Maine Coast Railroad had to give up in 2000. Scheduled passenger services between Brunswick and Rockland only operate Wednesdays through Sundays from late May to late October. From late May to late June, trains only run on weekends. From Wednesdays to Saturdays there are two trains in each direction, on Sundays one train in each direction. In addition, special trains run on various occasions. The passenger train set is stationed in Rockland.
The railway company owns six diesel locomotives: it took over two EMD FL9 (No. 488 and 489) and one MLW C420 (No. 4223) from Morristown & Erie , from the Canadian National Railway the MLW M420W (No. 3573) and from Amtrak two EMD F40PH -2 (nos. 256 and 291). Locomotives 488 and 489 are mostly used for passenger train service, usually in double traction.
In 2015, Maine Eastern lost the tender for freight traffic between Brunswick and Rockland, which will be transferred to the Central Maine and Quebec Railway from the beginning of 2016 . The seasonal passenger traffic on this section will therefore be discontinued at the end of the 2015 driving season.
Individual evidence
- ↑ roster list
- ↑ Article in Trains Magazine (accessed September 9, 2015)
