BELFAST — The crossing of the former Belfast & Moosehead Lake Railroad at Oak Hill Road could become a outlying hub for city recreation and tourism, according to a picture painted at a meeting of the Belfast City Council, May 7.

A two-mile segment of the city-owned rail corridor is slated for conversion to a two-mile recreational trail starting at the old Upper Bridge and ending near the old City Point Station at the juncture of Oak Hill and Kaler roads. Brooks Preservation Society, which has run excursion trains for the last three years on the Belfast rails, currently holds a lease to operate out of City Point Station and is in negotions to buy the property, according to Joe Feero, BPS executive director. 

BPS is also seeking a long-term lease from the city to operate on the track north of Oak Hill Road. If things continue in the same direction, the excursion trains would have a home base at the end of the rail trail, and to this end, city officials discussed the need for parking and restrooms that could be built jointly by the city and BPS to serve both endeavors.

The city is engaged in talks with Coastal Mountains Land Trust about a possible joint fundraising campaign to convert the rail trail, which, according to City Manager Joe Slocum, would involve removing all the rails and ties between the Upper Bridge and Oak Hill Road.

Coastal Mountains Land Trust currently has three conservation properties totaling 145 acres along the west side of the Passagassawakeag River and also has maintained a trail on the former city ski area on Upper High Street. The goal of the conservancy for serveral years has been to connect the parcels in what it termed the "Passagassawakeag Greenway."

Under the original plans, the Greenway was to consist of piecemeal connections likely more suitable to hikers than recreational walkers or bicyclists, but the possibility for streamlining the Greenway opened up when the city bought the rail corridor in 2010. Since then, the conservancy has been working with the city on a possible collaboration to convert the former rail line to a trail that could connect to the CMLT holdings.

Historicially, the Belfast & Moosehead Lake Railroad acted as a spur of the Maine Central Railroad, joining the north-south line at Burnham Junction and stretching inland to its terminus in downtown Belfast. When the railroad ceased to be viable for freight it was revived for a time as a tourist attraction, but fell out of favor with city officials during the last 10 years after passing through several owners and a change in city priorities. Much of the rail stock was sold off between 2008 ad 2010.

Brooks Preservation Society attempted to pick up the pieces in 2010, but the group's wide-eyed vision for the railroad met with a been-there-done-that sentiment from city officials, who were reticent to add baggage to the former Stinson Seafood Property, which had been a tough sell for redevelopment before it was snatched up by Front Street Shipyard developers DUBBA LLC in 2010.

The city bought a 3.5-mile stretch of the rail corridor from then-owner Unity Foundation in 2010 at the cut rate of $200,000 and quickly joined forces with CMLT to develop the Passy Greenway project. At the urging of BPS and other rail supporters, the city commissioned a feasibility study on running the recreational trail parallel to the rail lines but found that building out the railbed, which included several narrow passes with steep drop offs, to accomodate both uses would be too expensive.

Representatives of BPS grumbled about being pushed gradually out of town and away from the visitors they hoped to attract, but plans currently in the works to locate the rail operation at City Point Station, despite locating the rail even further out of town, has a natural logic to it.

On Tuesday, Slocum said CMLT had advised from its own extensive fundraising experience that the optimal window for a fundraising campaign was June through November. To this end, he said the city is attempting to have a full plan and cost estimates ready by June 1.

The conversion, he said, would likely include removal of all the rail and ties from the two-mile stretch of rail corridor between Veterans Memorial Bridge and Oak Hill Road and could potentially be funded under a common arrangement with outside firms in which the steel rails are traded for improvements to the railbed.

"What people would see would be an approximately 10-foot-wide stone dust recreational path," he said.

Slocum said the city will be filing an application for federal approval of the rail banking project, which he said he hoped to have by late August. 

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Ethan Andrews can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com.