State preparing for possible railroad shutdown
Maine transportation officials are talking with four rail freight companies who could step in for the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway should that company seek bankruptcy protection in the wake of a deadly and costly disaster in the Quebec town of Lac Mégantic earlier this month, according to the Bangor Daily News.
The disaster, involving a runaway oil tanker, killed an estimated 47 people and caused the company to lay off 79 of its 179 workers due to the interruption to its primary freight line through that Quebec town.
The paper reported that officials from the Maine Department of Transportation are developing a contingency plan should freight service to MMA’s 200 customers in the state end.
“We want to ensure that [Maine businesses] have viable options to move product should MMA suddenly shut down,” DOT spokesman Ted Talbot told the paper.
The state’s four other freight haulers are the Eastern Maine Railway-Northern Maine Railway, Maine Eastern Railroad, Pan Am Railways and the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad.
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