WASHINGTON – The Surface Transportation Board is seeking public comment on a long-simmering dispute between Pan Am Railways and the Milford-Bennington Railroad, a short line that operates on a portion of the former Boston & Maine Railroad’s Hillsboro Branch between Nashua and Hillsborough, N.H.
The Milford-Bennington Railroad shuttles carloads of rock for about 5 miles from a quarry outside of Wilton, N.H., to an aggregate plant in Milford, N.H., for its sole customer, Granite State Concrete.
Pan Am attorneys on April 13 asked the STB for the authority to evict the Milford-Bennington — an “adverse discontinuance of operating authority.” Pan Am claims that the trackage rights agreement the operators signed in 1992 expired in 2004.
The board is the last stop for a case that has left a trail of acrimony through the state’s executive council and courts, and a U.S. district court, according to reporting by state newspapers and filings with the STB.
In January 2011, media reported that Pan Am tried to permanently ban Peter Leishman, the Milford-Bennington’s owner, from the property after a grade-crossing accident. [“Pan Am Railways to shortline owner: you’re banned,” Trains News Wire, Jan. 24, 2011.]
Leishman is also a Democratic member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives. Pan Am officials allege that he used his political clout to help negotiate a 10-year lease with the state for the rail line, according to The Telegraph, Nashua’s daily newspaper. Pan Am owns the line from Nashua to Milford; the state owns the remainder of the branch to Hillsborough.
Local sentiment favors continued operation of the Milford-Bennington, according to letters on file with the STB. They express concern over deteriorating track conditions on the Pan Am line to Nashua, and the fear that Pan Am plans to abandon the branch altogether.
The town of Wilton said that discontinuance of railroad service would mean that rock from the quarry would have to be transported by truck to the processing plant: “The negative consequences for traffic congestion, safety, and local roadway damage would be pervasive and serious.”
The town of Milford also notes the potential damage to roads, and that the concrete company provides jobs and pays taxes that benefit the community.
“Removing Milford-Bennington’s rights to use the B&M’s line from Milford to Wilton would only further erode the possibility of future train service to the region and result in a downward spiral of rail maintenance,” its letter says.
Richard B. Putnam, who identifies himself as a Wilton merchant, asked the board, “What shred of evidence is there to indicate that a revival such as Pan Am puts forth is anything more than pure fiction?”
The STB will receive comments in the case until May 29. Further information is in the May 3 Federal Register.
Editor’s note: While the Boston & Maine called its line the Hillsboro branch, the community is Hillsborough, N.H.
