LEWISTON — Twin Cities transit officials will be on hand Sept. 14 for a rally to encourage rail development into Western Maine.

“I think we really need to rattle some cages on the rail issue, and this is a great place to start,” Androscoggin County Commissioner Jonathan Labonte said. “It’s good that the people in Bethel are taking a leadership role and we need to step up and be supportive.”

The Bethel Area Chamber of Commerce is organizing the rally, an open forum to discuss developing rail outside of the Midcoast, through Auburn, West Paris and Bethel and on to Montreal.

The Northern New England Rally for Rail is scheduled for 11 a.m. Sept. 14 at the Bethel Inn Resort. Tickets are $25 per person and may be purchased either online at www.rallyforrail.com or through the Bethel Area Chamber of Commerce.

Keynote speaker will be Dana Connors, president of the Maine State Chamber of Commerce and former commissioner of the Maine Department of Transportation. A lunch and cocktail hour will also be part of the conference.

A draft Maine Department of Transportation study released in August showed that developing a passenger rail link from Portland through Western Maine to Montreal would be expensive but lucrative. The study looked at the feasibility of adding intercity train service first between Portland and Auburn then up to Bethel and finally through New Hampshire to Montreal.

According to that study, it would cost between $70 million and $153 million to extend Amtrak passenger rail service between Portland and Auburn; $105 million and $252 million to extend up to Bethel; and $445 million and $592 million to extend to Montreal.

The full service could attract an additional 204,400 passengers to the Amtrak Downeaster service.

A project of that scope would need strong regional support, according to Transportation Planner Joan Walton of the Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments. AVCOG is co-sponsoring the Bethel rally.

“This is a way to gain momentum so that we as a region can continue to keep this agenda in the forefront,” Walton said. “It’s up to us now. We want to make sure it’s not forgotten and that we continue to plan.”

Local economic development and municipal officials are expected to attend the rally, but Labonte encouraged other interested residents to make the trip.

“When we had meetings here on the state rail plan, there were rooms full of people saying ‘Why not L-A?'” Labonte said. “We need to continue that spirit and we need to get organized. That means that even if there is not an imminent project, we have to be working on the issue.”

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