Halted Auburn freight service may have local impact
Canadian National Railway, Canada’s largest freight railroad, is discontinuing its service to Auburn’s intermodal facility this November, potentially impacting local businesses and the future of the truck-and-rail hub that connects Maine with Canadian ports.
The Lewiston Sun Journal reported that it’s unclear whether the facility’s owner, the St. Lawrence Atlantic railroad, will continue operations at the hub after losing its main user. The facility is the largest of three intermodal facilities in Maine, the newspaper noted.
A Canadian National spokesman told the Portland Press Herald that service is being cut to the 35-acre terminal “because traffic volumes are not sufficient to sustain that service.”
According to Chalmers Hardenbergh, publisher of the Atlantic Northeast Rails and Ports industry newsletter, Canadian National’s cargo volumes have been on the decline for more than 10 years, after reaching a peak of 12,000 containers shipped through Auburn in 1998.
When Canadian National ends freight service to Auburn on Nov. 15, the Auburn Intermodal Facility may not be used by other railroads “because there is nowhere to go,” Hardenbergh, who first reported news of Canadian National’s service change, told the Press Herald.
The newspaper noted that Freeport-based L.L.Bean, which has used the service to ship a “significant” amount of freight from Asia, could be impacted by the change in service, the. However, a company spokeswoman said, L.L.Bean has alternative plans in place.
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