Resolve, to Require the Department of Transportation to Implement
Maine Legislature, Session 132, LD 0029
Sponsors: DAUGHTRY

Legislative Document
No. 29
S.P. 46
In Senate, January 8, 2025
Resolve, to Require the Department of Transportation to Implement 
the Recommendations of the Lower Road Rail Use Advisory Council
Submitted by the Department of Transportation pursuant to Joint Rule 204.
Received by the Secretary of the Senate on January 6, 2025.  Referred to the Committee on 
Transportation pursuant to Joint Rule 308.2 and ordered printed.
DAREK M. GRANT
Secretary of the Senate
Presented by President DAUGHTRY of Cumberland.
Cosponsored by Representative: CLUCHEY of Bowdoinham.
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 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.
SUMMARY
This resolve directs the Department of Transportation, subject to available funding 
resources, permitting and municipal agreements, to 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 to replace the track with an interim bicycle and pedestrian 
trail surfaced with pavement or stone dust on the existing rail bed.