The Downeaster already runs between Boston and Portland, and there's a seasonal service between Brunswick and Rockland.
The missing link has been the 30-mile stretch between Portland and Brunswick. Now train service is expected to connect the two communities by the end of 2012, with a stop in between, in Freeport.
"You know this project has a lot going for it. It has not only transportation benefits, which we know about, but it has economic impact benefits."
Patricia Quinn is executive director of the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority, which applied for the grant and will be overseeing its allocation. Speaking from a building in Brunswick that will serve as the train station, Quinn says that 200 construction jobs will be created, for tasks such as laying rail -- and that's not all.
"It has education benefits by connecting Bowdoin College to all the other colleges down the line into Boston," she says. "It will support the redevelopment efforts of the Brunswick Naval Air Station. It will connect Boston to midcoast Maine and provide a vital connection to Yarmouth junction ,where eventually there could be expansion of service to the western part of the state."
The Maine project is part of the Obama administration's $8 billion investment in rail intiatives using federal stimulus funds.
It is one of the smaller projects -- by comparison, $1.25 billion is going just to Florida to create a high-speed train service. But Democratic Congresswoman Chellie Pingree, who was on hand to represent the state's Congressional delegation, says it will make a big difference in Maine.
"It's going to save our taxpayers money," she says. "If the state of Maine had to borrow this money and that was the plan if we didn't get federal dollars, they would have paid an additional $18 million in interest alone, so this is a tremendous boost for us."
Amtrack will operate the train service. But most of the money will go toward rail improvements by PanAm Railway, which owns all the track between Portland and Brunswick, save the mile approaching Brunswick, which is owned by the state.
PanAm president David Fink says the route is used right now for freight. "If you want to run passengers from Portland to Brunswick, it must be upgraded with new rail and new tie and a new signal system."
Fink says that PanAm is pleased the money came through for the rail upgrades, but that its bread and butter will continue to be its freight business. "The railroad doesn't really get any additional revneue from having passengers on the line. The federal government, if Amtrak wanted to, can force their way onto our property, so we'd rather work together to allow that to happen than to be fighting over something like that."
For the train stop in Freeport, the rail authority says it will use the money to build a platform, while the town will focus on getting the train station ready, located down the hill from the LL Bean flagship store on Bow Street.
The plan right now is to run two to three round trips between Portland and Brunswick, says Wayne Davis, who has been active in the planning for the route as chairman of the advocacy group TrainRiders/Northeast.
"This is the beginning. Two or three trains a day is not the max," Davis says. "The max will come when the Downeaster adds more roundtrips between Boston and Portland and that's just around the corner. It has five trips now every day. The ideal is eight round trips, then there can be additional trips extended to Freeport and Brunswick."
Davis says the expansion of the rail service to Brunswick was being discussed 20 years ago. After the Downeaster had its inaugural run in 2001, Brunswick started counting down to when the service would arrive in town.
At times, it seemed like a pipe dream. Paul Faustine, who owns Red Dragon Toys on Maine Street, not far from the future train station, says he's been waiting. "Forever. I've been here for seven years and it's always been talked about."
He is looking forward to getting more shoppers. "Brunswick is a better place for business in general if you can draw from further away without people having to get in a car. Brunswick becomes a better place to live if people can travel without getting into a car, if they can commute on a train even, that makes that better."
Coordinators of the Portland to Brunswick project aren't wasting any time getting things moving. Requests for bids went out this morning. Patricia Quinn says how quickly the project gets the federal money will determine when they can start ordering materials.