Ever since the Maine Central abandoned the Eastport spur of their Calais Branch, Eastport has been trying to get service back to their (expanded just before the line was abandoned) deepwater port.
In 2012, when the LT&L was contracted to run Woodland Rail’s spur from Calais to Woodland, the city of Eastport then approached the LT&L to see if they’d be interested in putting service back in from Ayer’s Junction to Eastport.
Why, yes, the LT&L would be interested, so they sat down with the city, the State of Maine, and the FRA to see if it could be done, and in 2017 a funding package & long-term service agreement was worked to that the US government, the State of Maine, and Eastport would pay for half the cost of reactivating the line in return for a 30 year commitment for the LT&L to operate it and cover the costs of routine MOW.
The rehabilitation of the line was complete by 2020, and service started in early 2021, using a pair of class DL16 units that had been displaced from the D&H by electrifying the stub of the Lake George branch and the mainline from Binghamton to Owego.
It (obviously) still operates, but now as part of the LT&L’s Murmuration Railways Group.