The Joint Standing Committee on Transportation has voted unanimously to fund an engineering plan for the Mountain Division Line. While much work remains to be done, the re-establishment of the passenger and freight line holds so much positive economic and environmental impacts that it creates its own logic.

The plan has horsepower.

Traffic congestion, air pollution, dependence on foreign oil are problems that scream to be addressed. Maintaining a crumbling highway and bridge system is not the sole answer to Maine’s transportation needs.

Why put our magnificent rural communities through the asphalt paving shredder machine? Ever-widening highways to speed people to work in Portland and environs are not the answer, either. The auto glut will simply rise to fill five or seven-lane highways.

A freight-passenger rail system built to modern-day standards is an answer for the Lakes Region, and quite possibly Maine, as well.

The Mountain Division connects to the intermodal facility in Portland Harbor and the Amtrak Station in Portland. In Fryeburg, the line is separated from a totally upgraded New Hampshire line by a few yards of brush and overgrowth.

At the public hearing we learned that a connection to Montreal, Canada already exists.

With lumberyards, gravel pits, quarries and a high-tech precision fabrication facility already located along the rail corridor committed to shipping goods via rail, the economic underpinnings for a line exists.

Portland, Westbrook, Gorham, Windham, Standish, Baldwin, Hiram, Denmark and Fryeburg lie along the route. Removing vehicular traffic from major arteries like Route 302, Route 113, Route 25 and Route 35 is an obvious positive goal.

Let’s let our thoughts dwell on the tourist travel the line invites. Envision a stop in Sebago Lake Village, at what I propose to call the “Dolly-Stop”- where Dolores Lymburner used to sit, gaze out upon Sebago Lake and energize herself for her service to Standish.

Or, picture day trippers from Steep Falls’ own award-winning family campground Acres of Wildlife, spending a day at Old Orchard Beach, an evening of racing at Scarborough Downs or Beech Ridge Motor Speedway and returning to their campsite via rail.

The economic potential in this plan is immense and environmentally friendly. This is one of the rarest of occasions when past experiences inform present-day needs. Our cherished past can thrust our region into a positive economic future.

We can, indeed, have it all.

The collaboration of town officials in every town along the line over the past years is about to reach fruition. Business leaders, citizens and political leaders recognize with great enthusiasm the needs our area faces and the value of this solution.

Let’s put Standish and the entire region back on track!

Rep. Gary Moore is a Republican representing the town of Standish. He has served the town for three terms.