Jeremy Cluchey

This op-ed originally ran in the June 10, 2023, issue of the Kennebec Journal.

Imagine a trail from Augusta to Brunswick, offering rare and breathtaking views as it traces the Kennebec, Cathance, and Androscoggin rivers.

Running along an inactive state-owned railroad corridor, it would attract tourists from around the country, benefit small businesses in our town centers, and provide opportunities for exercise, alternative transportation, and connection to people of all ages in our communities.

This is the Merrymeeting Trail.

After 15 years of volunteer effort and community support, the Merrymeeting Trail is closer than ever to becoming a reality. For the past six months, an advisory council convened by the Maine Department of Transportation (MaineDOT) has been meeting to discuss potential uses of the dormant “Lower Road” rail corridor. Among the council members — who represent each of the local towns, as well as economic, rail, trail, and other relevant interests in the region — there has been broad consensus that the state should do *something* with the corridor. After sitting unused for the better part of four decades, it’s time for this public asset to bring value to local communities.

As part of the council’s inquiry, analysis by professional consultants has shown that train service along this line will not be viable anytime soon. Demand for freight has not existed for some time, and the math simply does not add up for passenger rail. A recent MaineDOT study estimates costs approaching $1 billion dollars to upgrade the infrastructure to meet modern rail needs; then — even with an annual state subsidy of $9.3 million — a one-way ticket from Brunswick to Bangor would still cost $118. And that doesn’t include the cost of constructing train stations.

With a projected demand of fewer than 240 trips per day through 2040, the study wisely proposes expanding bus service as “the cost-effective, timely, equitable, and climate-friendly way to improve public transportation in the study area.” It concludes that, “Given the relatively low transit demand, low population densities, high capital and operating costs, low climate and equity benefits, and extensive transportation needs statewide…it would be imprudent to continue the study of extending passenger rail to Bangor at this time.”

For the Lower Road corridor, this means the choice is not between using it for trail or for train, but rather between using it for trail or nothing at all.

Repurposing the corridor as a trail — the Merrymeeting Trail — would bring incredible benefits to our region. Such a change would be considered an interim use, with the corridor forever preserved for rail service, should demand and technology make returning trains to this part of Maine feasible in the future.

Whatever your views on this project, the council wants to hear from you. You are invited to join a virtual public forum on Thursday, June 22, at 6 p.m. via Zoom to share your perspective with the advisory council members and MaineDOT. (Visit merrymeetingtrail.org for the webinar link as soon as it is available.)

After hearing from the community, the council will vote on a recommendation and submit a report to the commissioner of the MaineDOT, who can then bring the proposal to the Legislature as a next step.

As Maine charts its transportation future, we have a unique opportunity to create new, equitable active transportation routes that bring enormous benefits to our communities. The Merrymeeting Trail is a prime example.

If the state of Maine can be creative and resourceful in making the best use of this languishing public asset, we may soon be able to say to our friends, neighbors, children, and grandchildren, “Meet me on the Merrymeeting Trail!”

Jeremy Cluchey represents trail groups on Maine Department of Transportation’s Lower Road Rail Corridor Use Advisory Council. He is a former Bowdoinham selectman.

This op-ed originally ran in the March 10, 2023 issue of the Times Record newspaper.

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I am a parent of children in the Maine School Administrative District 75 school system. Recently, I have become concerned that certain rights of mine are not being respected. Here are some of the rights I’m talking about.

As a parent, I have a right to send my kids into classrooms that are filled with books and materials chosen by educational professionals – not by people with political agendas who are looking to exclude points of view with which they disagree. I would never try to ban a book, because then I’d be making a decision on behalf of other people’s kids, and I’d be infringing on their parents’ rights.

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This column originally ran in the Times Record newspaper on November 26, 2021.

Each autumn, I’ve been lucky to find myself with much to be thankful for. The smell of a fall campfire, for one. The friend who takes me duck hunting and suggests good excuses when I miss every shot. And of course, the arrival of eggnog at Hannaford long before it is seasonally appropriate.

At the top of my gratitude list this year is our local schools, and the common sense that voters demonstrated in our recent MSAD 75 school board elections.

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This column was originally published in the Kennebec Journal newspaper on August 28, 2021.

You may have heard about the Merrymeeting Trail, a 26-mile multi-use trail that would join the Kennebec River Rail Trail in the north to the Androscoggin River Bicycle and Pedestrian Path in the south, linking Augusta to Brunswick (and one day to Bath!) in an incredible “capital to coast” connection.

For over a decade, towns and volunteers along the route have worked to make this vision for connected communities a reality. It’s exciting to see that their efforts are bearing fruit.

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This column originally ran in the Portland Press Herald newspaper on April 16, 2021.

Robert Frost famously wrote about two roads that “diverged in a yellow wood.” These days, you couldn’t be blamed for thinking that half of us have wandered down one of those roads, half down the other. With all the division and disconnection we’re experiencing, the various paths traveled by family, friends, and neighbors have seldom felt more divergent. It’s gotten so we can hardly recognize each other through the trees.

If we’re going to find our way back together, we need to focus on the many areas of common ground we still share. Fortunately, one of those is right beneath our feet: Maine’s trails. Even before the pandemic, polling showed Mainers overwhelmingly supported local trails. As residents of many states were confined to their homes, our ability to get outdoors safely over the past year has only reinforced how lucky we are to have trails connecting our communities. For my family, regular outings on public trails have been a lifesaver, and I know we’re not alone.

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This column originally ran in the Times Record newspaper on October 27, 2020.

One recent evening, I was getting ready for bed in the usual way: staring at my phone, anxiously doomscrolling through deeply troubling news stories. An article about the wildfires out west had caught my attention, and I was reading about how climate change had taken a bad situation and made it exponentially worse. Just as I was about to close up shop and drag myself to bed, a friend texted to say that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had passed away.

With that, a new fire was kindled. This one was in my chest, and it was a burning mix of sadness, rage, and panic. Certainly, a Senate majority leader with any integrity would abide by the outrageous precedent they’d set in 2016, waiting until after the election to confirm a new justice. The bald hypocrisy of doing otherwise would be too much for a normal human. The fire raged, of course, because Senator Mitch McConnell wouldn’t know integrity if it bit him in the filibuster.

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This column originally ran in the Times Record newspaper on August 24, 2020.

I have a deep, nerdy love for the Postal Service. I trace it back to my 20s, when I was working as an analyst at the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) in Washington, DC. As part of my job, I was sent into the bowels of mail processing plants with a clipboard to audit the efficiency of their sorting and delivery operations. It was exactly as glamorous as it sounds.

The GAO issues about 1,000 reports and congressional testimonies a year, examining every conceivable government program and operation. While each report has a unique focus, the running joke inside the agency was that they could all have the same title: “Some Progress Made, More Needed.” I don’t know what it’s going to say on my gravestone, but I’ve often thought that sounded about right.

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