Resolve, to Direct the Department of Transportation to Implement the Recommendations of the Mountain Division Rail Use Advisory Council
Maine Legislature, Session 131, LD 0404
Committee: Transportation
Sponsors: BENNETT

Legislative Document
No. 404
S.P. 185
In Senate, February 2, 2023
Resolve, to Direct the Department of Transportation to Implement 
the Recommendations of the Mountain Division Rail Use Advisory 
Council
Submitted by the Department of Transportation pursuant to Joint Rule 204.
Reference to the Committee on Transportation suggested and ordered printed.
DAREK M. GRANT
Secretary of the Senate
Presented by Senator BENNETT of Oxford.
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, Resolve 2021, chapter 52 directed the department to establish a rail corridor 
use advisory council to review the Mountain Division Line for potential nonrail use; and
Whereas, the Mountain Division Rail Use Advisory Council convened and met for 7 
months during 2021 and 2022; and
Whereas, the 12-member Mountain Division Rail Use Advisory Council voted 11-1 
to recommend the interim conversion of 31 miles of existing railroad track to a 10-foot-
wide paved bicycle and pedestrian trail; and
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 the recommendation, the commissioner 
shall seek legislative approval of the recommendation by submitting legislation to the joint 
standing committee of the Legislature having jurisdiction over transportation matters prior 
to track removal or other change for 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 Mountain Division Line.  Resolved:  That, based 
on the recommendation of the Mountain Division 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 
miles of state-owned inactive existing railroad track in the Town of Standish and the 
Town of Fryeburg and replace the track with an interim 10-foot-wide bicycle and 
pedestrian trail, surfaced with either pavement or stone dust on the existing rail bed.
SUMMARY
This resolve directs the Department of Transportation, subject to available funding 
resources, permitting and municipal agreements, to remove 31 miles of state-owned 
inactive existing railroad track in the Town of Standish and the Town of Fryeburg and 
replace the track with an interim 10-foot-wide bicycle and pedestrian trail, surfaced with 
either pavement or stone dust on the existing rail bed.