About Us

Newly formed Midcoast Railservice (“MCRI”) became lessee-operator of Maine Department of Transportation’s 57-mile Rockland Branch rail corridor on August 1, 2022. The wholly owned subsidiary of New York’s well-known Finger Lakes Railway intends to revitalize the underutilized line as a “Coastal Route 2” alternative to narrow parallel highway US 1.

Freight service is coordinated with new connecting carrier CSX Transportation, which offers direct access to industrial customers in 23 states and two provinces, including 40 marine and inland ports. This system restructuring should create more cost-effective options for traffic to and from Maine now moving primarily by highway.

Our cooperative public-private mission with the state is to relieve highway traffic in an environmentally preferable manner. Rail transportation is more fuel-efficient than trucking, has a much smaller carbon footprint, is far less labor-intensive, and does not suffer from driver shortages. Many in-state businesses have become routinely accustomed to dealing with truckers and overlook possible rail alternatives for products like automobiles, fertilizer, fuel, lumber, pipe, scrap and trash. Give us an opportunity to be competitive on your longer-distance highway traffic.