Bath's train station to get second chance with riders

A historic Bath train station that's been boarded up for years will again hum with passengers.

After the Bath Railroad Station closed in 1959, many doubted that it would ever again serve passenger trains. The station underwent several ownership changes and several uses, including time as a dental clinic.

Now, 47 years later, the Commercial Street building will be restored to its original use.

City and state review agencies recently approved the station's design, meaning the Maine Department of Transportation can seek bids for train station work. If all goes well, officials say the station could be ready for passenger trains by May. The project, including design and engineering expenses, will cost just over $1 million.

"It is nice that the train station is still here," said James Upham, Bath's director of planning and development. "There were so many train stations around Maine and the country that were torn down due to unwise thinking brought on by urban renewal projects."

Maine Central Railroad opened the Bath Railroad Station on Dec. 22, 1941. For the next 18 years, the station served the passenger line between Brunswick and Rockland.

Bath Iron Works purchased the station after it closed on April 3, 1959. The shipyard leased the station to the city for a number of years. In August 1971, the city acquired the building from BIW.

The Jesse Albert Memorial Dental Clinic used a portion of the building to serve low-income families for a number of years. Empty sections of the station were used to store city property, including an antique fire truck. The station was boarded up when the clinic moved about five years ago.

Upham said the city and state hope the restoration will help revitalize Bath's waterfront and increase interest in passenger train service.

Maine Eastern Railroad, which leases the rail line between Brunswick and Rockland from the state, is in its second full year of operation.

Spokesman Gordon Page said ridership has increased steadily on the line. It offers excursions between July 1 and October. Page said a new train station in Bath will help the city and the railroad improve its image, much like in Rockland, where a 1917 train station recently was restored. It now houses a restaurant.

Maine Eastern's trains stop in Bath, but passengers are left on an empty street between the shipyard and the Route 1 viaduct.

"We use Bath now (for passenger stops), but getting out under the Sagadahoc Bridge is a little like walking into no man's land," Page said. "I think the new train station will help Bath become a much more important destination for riders."

The station's exterior will be refurbished and its interior completely refitted with new electrical, plumbing and communication systems.

The station's windows, which are the originals, will be repaired before they are reinstalled, said Peggy Duval, who is managing the Bath train station project for the state.

Once it is completed, the station will not only serve as a ticketing center for Maine Eastern Railroad passengers, but could service passenger buses. Bids for the work will be solicited on Aug. 16.

Duval said the state also plans to close a visitor information center and restroom facility near Bath's border with West Bath on Route 1 and move those operations to the train station.

Upham said the next phase of the project, which has not been funded, will be to connect the train station with Bath's waterfront. That goal will be accomplished by building walking paths, installing street lights and landscaping the area under the Sagadahoc Bridge.

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