BROWNVILLE (AP) — A central Maine town that’s a hub for a railroad whose runaway oil train derailment killed 47 people in a small Quebec town is feeling the fallout from the accident.
Brownville’s normally a noisy place with workers shifting railroad cars around a network of tracks in town. But the accident that brought tragedy to Lac-Megantic, Quebec, has brought economic hardship to Brownville.
Lac-Megantic and Brownville are connected by the rail line operated by the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway, which is under investigation for the July 6 accident.
With the railroad’s tracks to Quebec now cut off at Lac-Megantic, the trains going in that direction from Brownville are no longer running. Since the accident, the railroad has laid off 67 workers in Maine, 47 of whom live around Brownville and nearby Milo, where the railroad has a large repair shop.
“When it’s quiet, nobody is working,” Richard Monahan, 63, told the Maine Sunday Telegram. “This town is hurting now. The railroad is the only thing we have here.”
Many of the workers are hopeful they’ll be called back to their jobs once the connection to Quebec is reopened, but the truth is that the railroad has been so damaged financially that it may take as long as two years before the rail line is functioning again, said Brownville Town Manager Matthew Pineo.
The railroad’s chairman, Ed Burkhardt, said in a CBC radio interview Wednesday that the company may not survive.
The railroad jobs, which pay from $2,500 to as much as $6,000 a month, are among the best-paid jobs in Piscataquis County, a sparsely populated part of Maine with low incomes and a high jobless rate. Moreover, wood product and paper manufacturers depend on rail to bring in supplies and send goods to market, Pineo said.
“Rail is what keeps this county alive,” he said. “I pray every day the railroad is going to survive.”
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