AUBURN – An agreement capping 18 months of negotiations between Guilford and St. Lawrence and Atlantic railroads should speed train traffic through Maine and settle traffic questions in Danville Junction.

The two railroads will officially close Station Road in the Danville area in southern Auburn. Saint Lawrence and Atlantic will move its track northeast, closer to Guilford’s line. That will allow St. Lawrence to use the area south of its track for car storage. The two companies will share tracks south of Danville Junction, allowing each more car stacking and storage.

“They already use that area for sorting and stacking cars,” Auburn Public Services Director Eric Labelle said. Between the two companies, track in that area is used for about 12 hours per day, he said. The changes will let them sort cars more efficiently. They expect to use the area about two hours per day.

“They say it will also increase the speeds through the area, from 5 miles per hour to 30,” Labelle said. The companies claim it will reduce shipping time for cars headed out of Maine by as much as 24 hours.

“Ideally, it’s good for shipping,” Labelle said. “But if they ever want to use the lines for passenger rail, they can’t have every train there tied up for hours at a time.”

Work is scheduled to begin in September and to continue through November. It will break for the winter, beginning again early in 2009. It should be completed next fall.

The work is estimated to cost $5 million, Labelle said. The Maine Department of Transportation is paying $1.9 million and each railroad is paying $900,000. The Federal Transit Authority is paying the last $1.3 million.

The changes will close Station Road to through traffic once and for all. The land under the road is owned by the railroads but was used by south Auburn residents as a route between Washington Avenue and Old Danville Road, even though it is heavily pot-holed and rutted.

“The city actually wanted to go in and repave it two years ago, but the railroads asked us to desist,” Labelle said. Instead, the city paved Black Cat Road, which runs parallel to Station Road.

Labelle said the city will ask the state to install a railroad signal and gate at Guilford’s northern crossing with Black Cat Road.