Amtrak's Downeaster rail service secured a $27.5 million federal grant in December to make repairs and related improvements along the tracks between Brunswick, Maine, and the Massachusetts border.

The project, estimated to cost $34.3 million according to an Amtrak news release, aims to keep the rails in good condition, reducing the need to impose speed limits on the passenger trains, cutting down freight delays, and improving safety and service, Mainebiz reported Dec. 11.

Over the long term, the goal is to support future expansions along the Downeaster's route, which runs 146 mi. between Brunswick and Boston and includes six stops in Maine.

CSX Transportation, which owns the line, will provide matching funds of 20 percent for the upgrades, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Railroad Administration (FRA).

Construction is expected in 2024 and 2025.

The Amtrak Downeaster project is one of 10 major passenger rail projects nationwide set to receive a combined $8.2 billion and announced by President Biden earlier in the month. The list includes a planned high-speed rail system between California and Nevada and expanding capacity at Chicago's Union Station.

In addition to the $27.5 million for the Amtrak Downeaster, the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority will receive $500,000 to explore building a new Amtrak Downeaster station in West Falmouth, Mass., and extending train service from Brunswick to Rockland, Maine.

The funding comes as Downeaster ridership heads back up to pre-pandemic levels. Data released this summer show that 516,723 passengers were transported in the 2023 fiscal year, exceeding a half-million annual passengers for the first time since fiscal 2019.

Federal Funding to Improve U.S. 1 in Aroostook County

A stretch of U.S. Highway 1 in Aroostook County will soon get $27.7 million in upgrades, due to federal funding secured by U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.

The five-term senator said the funding, which will come through the U.S. Department of Transportation's Rural Surface Transportation Grant Program, will repair two sections of the highway, a total of 10.4 mi. near Frenchville.

Collins, who also serves as vice president of the Senate Appropriations Committee, was part of a group of 10 senators that negotiated the text of the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which is the source of the funding.

She cited the critical role the highway plays in her native Aroostook County.

"Connecting communities along the U.S.-Canadian border to families, jobs, health care, and essential goods every day, Route 1 plays a critical role in northern Maine," Collins said in a news release from her office. "This funding will support important safety and drainage improvements, road and shoulder reconstruction, and the construction of new tie-in roads for driveways and businesses along the corridor."

The bipartisan infrastructure law is expected to deliver approximately $2.5 billion to Maine over its first five years of enactment for critical broadband, transportation, energy and environmental projects.

Since 2009, when Collins became a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, she has helped to secure more than $1 billion in competitive transportation grants for the state of Maine.

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