“From that moment on in 1964, it has always been a problem for me to get to Lewiston, and I know I can’t be the only one,” he said Wednesday in a phone call from his car, en route to LAX for his next visit.

He planned to fly from Los Angeles to Boston, take a bus to Portland and have his brother-in-law grab him there.

A direct train up to Lewiston from Boston would solve the problem.

If, you know, there were one.

“I dream of riding a passenger train to here someday before I leave this Earth — and we’ve been working on it that long,” said Chip Morrison, president of the Androscoggin County Chamber of Commerce. “That’s a problem.”

There’s been interest in re-establishing passenger rail to Lewiston-Auburn for decades — for tourism, for ease of getting from there to here and here to there, and for economic development — and that interest is not going away, despite obstacles.

First, mostly: money.

The state says neither Maine nor the feds have any.

Nonetheless, there are new rumblings:

* A legislative bill from state Sen. Margaret Craven, D-Lewiston, would study the idea, again.

* The Maine Rail Transit Coalition has a new plan that it says could make rail happen here.

* And the rail authority behind the Downeaster is at work on a plan to, eventually, bring rail up this way.

In many ways, the trains — along with the river, the falls and early entrepreneurs — built Lewiston-Auburn.

“One of the bases of the Twin Cities was the train service right into (downtown,)” said Jennifer Williams, transportation director for the Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments.

Rail service from Canada brought workers down to the booming mills.

“For those who have an interest in their heritage, the idea of extending it and being able to get up to Montreal is huge,” she said.

She’s familiar with the no-money-now argument.

“It’s a long process and people have to have a lot of patience and thick skin to work through it all,” Williams said. “Without a plan, you’re not going to have a shot at money” down the line.

‘There’s nuances’

AVCOG and the Androscoggin Transportation Resource Center support local rail service as does the chamber in its annual special-edition newsletter, “What we stand for.”

Discussions about rail are really about two options, said Roland Miller, Auburn’s director of economic development: Commuter service (multiple trains back and forth to Portland) and long-distance passenger service (Boston to L-A to Canada.)

“They get confused on a regular basis,” Miller said.

The city has had an “unwavering desire” for passenger service that links to western Maine, New Hampshire and beyond, he said.

Miller expects business and population growth and more real estate investment would follow.

He isn’t sure enough users are there yet for commuter service. Auburn’s mayor isn’t either.

“I want to see (rail service) in Lewiston-Auburn,” Mayor Jonathan LaBonte said. “I want to see it when it makes sense to do it, and it needs to come downtown. There’s nuances to all of that.”

LaBonte doesn’t want passengers hopping on and off at the Auburn-Lewiston Municipal Airport, which is where the Maine Rail Transit Coalition’s current pitch, and some city plans, leaves them.

Dropped off in the downtown, however, new passenger traffic could benefit businesses and festivals, and might even draw up cruise ship passengers from Portland, LaBonte said.

He’d like to measure demand before pursuing commuter service — ideally, by having people commute by bus first.

“Why not get buses on the road, build up your market over 10 to 20 years and then put in place the rail service?” LaBonte said. “We spent $40 million to go to Brunswick (with the Downeaster), we’re spending $2 million a year to operate it for 100 passengers a day. Run a cost-benefit analysis on that versus what you could have accomplished with a bus.

“That’s the hard reality,” he said. “I appreciate the romanticism of trains. I think Maine could have a viable rail plan for passenger service, but it’s not going to happen overnight because the government can’t afford it. I think we need to be honest with residents about that.”

Long haul

Across the river, Lincoln Jeffers, Lewiston’s economic and community development director, has similar reservations. People might not be willing to drive 10 minutes to a local train station, and take a taxi from a Portland train station to the office, to save a 40-minute commute.

Take that long-haul passenger view, though, and he sees potential.

The potential could depend somewhat on how Twin Cities trains connect to Portland:

* Using state-owned St. Lawrence and Atlantic tracks to India Street in downtown Portland, and then having to get to the Downeaster’s train station outside town for those who want to travel farther south;

* Or using the privately owned Pan Am line to Portland’s Downeaster station, and then finding another means of transportation for those who want to go downtown.

“It’s hard to put your arms around who would use it and how often, at what cost,” said Lucien Gosselin, president of the Lewiston-Auburn Economic Growth Council and agent for the Lewiston-Auburn Railroad Co.

He’s a supporter of passenger rail running here again, but he’s practical.

“If it costs too much, then nobody’s going to use it,” Gosselin said. “If it’s too little, then somebody’s going to have to subsidize it, and then that raises the question: Who pays for the subsidy?”

Commuter rail, passenger rail and freight rail must be viable alternatives in the future, he said. “If Maine and southern Maine continue to grow, then that’s got to be part of the mix. I don’t know in the short term how we’re going to make this happen.”

Lewiston Mayor Bob Macdonald also supports rail’s return — “that’ll open up the rest of Maine” — but wonders about the money.

It would have a big price tag, Morrison said.

“It’s an investment,” he said. “It’s not an expense. It’s an investment in Maine’s future. And one I hope, ultimately, the Legislature is going to make.”

Morrison supports Craven’s legislation, LD 999, to study rail feasibility, which had a public hearing last Tuesday. It’s tentatively scheduled for a workshop on April 23.

The state has opposed her bill.

Department of Transportation spokesman Ted Talbot said that right now, the department doesn’t see the demand to extend rail service to Lewiston-Auburn. And, it doesn’t have money.

“(Maine Rail Transit Coalition’s) Tony Donovan and others said there’s federal money out there — there isn’t. There just isn’t,” said Talbot. “Not only in these days of sequestration, there’s no one at the federal level we can call and say, ‘Hey, we need this rail money.'”

The Downeaster extended service to Brunswick last November.

“We did a feasibility study for the Brunswick leg,” Talbot said. “It said, ‘Yes, there’s need, there’s demand, and go.’ Turns out, the study was right on. We did another study for this leg of it, Lewiston-Auburn. It says there is not a demand. And somehow when it says ‘yes,’ we’re right (in the eyes of the public) and when it says ‘no,’ we’re wrong.”

Poulin, the Lewiston native who now lives in Downey, Calif., said that in the interim he’d settle for convenient bus service. Right now, Concord Coach Lines travels from Portland’s Downeaster station to Augusta without stopping in Lewiston. Greyhound offers bus service from Portland to Lewiston, but the Greyhound station is nearly a one-mile walk from the Downeaster station in Portland.

“Yes, train service from Portland to Lewiston would be great, but if it will take as long to implement as it did the Boston-to-Portland service, I will never see it,” Poulin said.

[email protected]

We asked readers: Train service in L-A, yea or nay? Of the more than 25 responses, only two opposed the idea.

A sample of comments:

“Of course there should be rail service between Portland and Lewiston-Auburn. I remember many trips from New York to Lewiston via the State of Maine Express (changing at Portland for the last leg) in the late ’40s and early ’50s.

“On my bucket list is a trip by rail (and only rail) from Florida to New York, then New York to Boston, then Boston to Portland, then the last leg into the Twin Cities.”

Michael Napolitano, Ocala, Fla.

***

“I think the train to Auburn is a great idea and a long time in coming. We need to do more to encourage economic development. We need to encourage more things that save energy and fuel conservation. We need to make up for Concord Trailways bypassing L-A to take 295 to Augusta.”

Steve Robinson, Poland

***

“It will help boost the economy, open up the area to more visitors and provide a great opportunity for anyone who wants to commute to work.

“I will be returning to my home state of Maine in three weeks and moving to the L-A area. I am going to be in culture shock, so my need to be near shops, theaters, fine dining, the ocean, the Old Port, Boston is an understatement.”

Gail LaBelle, Goose Creek, S.C.

***

“I would absolutely love train service in L-A! We drive to the Portland terminal to hop on Amtrak to Boston several times a year and the best opportunity would be train service from L-A to Montreal!

“This would also be nice for L-A to bring people to our town and not have to worry about parking — say, during the Balloon Festival. What are we waiting for!?”

Jennifer Mercier, Lewiston

***

“Great idea. We could connect with the world right from our own city.”

Robert Coulombe, Auburn

More coverage:

• Reader reactions
• Downeaster plans train to L-A, eventually