There's been a flurry of passenger rail news from Maine and New Hampshire. First, Maine. 

Lewiston-Auburn: Two workshops will be held this month as part of a $400,000 legislative appropriation to examine the viability and community support for service between L-A and Portland. The first will be in Portland on Tuesday, March 27th in Room 24 of the Portland City Hall and the other in Lewiston on Wednesday, March 28th in Callahan Hall of the Lewiston Library from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.

LAStudy

Kennebunk: This town has run hot and cold on creating a seasonal stop for the Downeaster.

Kbunk1Proposed site of Kennebunk Downeaster stop.

At a recent meeting of the town's Economic Development Committee, it was decided to move forward with planning as Kennebunk faces a July 1st deadline for using an $800,000 federal infrastructure grant. You can read a detailed report on the meeting here. 

New Hampshire: Just last month (see our article on this homepage), the state legislature decided not to utilize a $4 million federal grant to study commuter rail service between Nashua, Manchester, Concord and Boston. That is now 'old news' as the NH House just voted to include the proposal in its 10-year Transportation Plan. The House voted 166-160 to approve the study money...now it's up to the Senate. More here.