Residents fight proposal to cut Vanceboro border station hours

Residents around Vanceboro and McAdam are continuing to fight the proposal to reduce the border station hours by 12 hours every day. The Town of Vanceboro hosted a meeting on July 5 that drew approximately 100 people, with all indicating they were opposed to having the border closed from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m.
  Petitions are currently being circulated in towns from Houlton to Calais and from McAdam to Saint John on the Canadian side to oppose the plan. Cheryl Long, head of the select board in Vanceboro, says she gathered 400 signatures around town in just a week. The congressional offices of Senators Susan Collins and Angus King and Congressman Jared Golden are also involved now in the issue.
  "We need the business here," Long says of the traffic through the border crossing. Along with the impact on businesses and commercial traffic, particularly log trucks, many residents have family on both sides of the border. While it's only six miles from Vanceboro to McAdam through the Vanceboro border crossing, it's about 60 miles by traveling down to Calais, which would be necessary during the period when the Vanceboro crossing is closed.
  Long notes that one of the main issues is an anticipated increase in rail traffic from the Port of Saint John through the border crossing. "The more trains, the more people that work," says Long, noting that a number of people in Vanceboro work for the railroad and that a new siding may need to be constructed in the town for the trains. She adds, "McAdam has been a rail town for years. It employs a lot of people over there."
  According to Long, the trains can only cross from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. currently, but if the border is closed to vehicles during the night hours U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) says the trains could run 24 hours a day, as customs wouldn't have to have the manpower at night in Vanceboro and could send officers from Calais to clear the trains. She alleges that CBP "wants Irving to spend a lot of money for trains at night," as the company would have to pay for officers to travel up from Calais.
  In response to questions, Ryan Brissette, a spokesman for CBP, provided a statement saying, "U.S. Customs and Border Protection is constantly evaluating staffing levels at ports of entry in an attempt to allocate its limited resources best. The Vanceboro Port of Entry, amongst many other ports, was identified for a reduction in hours of operation due to the steady decline in public traffic over the past decade." He says that CBP statistics, reflecting pre-pandemic traffic from 2017 through 2019, show that only 7.4 vehicles cross daily via the port during the proposed hours of reduction. With the decrease in vehicle traffic has come an increase in rail traffic, though. "To better serve this need, CBP officers will be redirected to periods that better reflect the increased rail traffic to ensure the safety of goods entering the United States."
  During the meeting, CBP officials also pointed to an inability to get their officers to come to the Vanceboro border crossing to work and the increased operational costs to transport their officers from Calais to Vanceboro.
  Of the comments from CBP officials at the meeting, Long notes, "There were a lot of questions asked that they wouldn't answer." She adds, "They had an excuse for everything. It all boils down to money."
  While CBP officials have pointed to difficulty in staffing the Vanceboro crossing, Long observes that officers used to live in the community but now live elsewhere. She also wonders why CBP, instead of cutting at the Vanceboro crossing, can't reduce the hours at one of the three border crossings in Calais, noting that there seems to be little traffic on the new commercial bridge.
  Among those who spoke in opposition to the closure were the mayor of McAdam, Ken Stannix, who urged a delay in implementing the reduction so that the opportunity to increase traffic could be given a chance, and John Kilbride from the logging company H.C. Haynes Inc. Kilbride noted that one night his company had sent seven or eight trucks to cross in Vanceboro but they were not able to and had to go down to Calais. With the price of diesel fuel, the extra distance cost the company a significant amount. Representatives from Irving-owned New Brunswick Southern Railway also were at the meeting.

Rail traffic expected to increase significantly
  Stannix points to investments being made to increase port and rail shipments in the region in order to move cargo from the Port of Saint John, which is modernizing its infrastructure to handle larger vessels and increase shipments to the Canadian and U.S. Northeast and Midwest. The port is investing roughly $250 million to expand its capacity from 100,000 to 300,000 shipping containers and announced in May another $42 million to begin expanding capacity from 300,000 to 800,000 containers over the next couple of years. Also, NBM Railways, which has rail lines spanning New Brunswick and Maine, is spending $42 million to upgrade rail lines from Saint John to McAdam and railyards in Saint John and McAdam. Meanwhile in New England, Canadian Pacific Railway is upgrading rail from Montreal into Maine at a cost of $90 million, and the CSX Corporation is spending $100 million to purchase Pan American Railways in the New England states to gain access to the Port of Saint John.
  Stannix observes that the heavy investment in rail on both sides of the border will lead to greater employment for both regions. As an example, he points out that the anticipated increase in train traffic will immediately lead to the hiring of additional personnel to operate these trains, as the crews change when they pass through Vanceboro. "These jobs generally have higher salaries and are long term in duration," he notes. Also, rail maintenance will lead to additional jobs on both sides of the border. "Further, I suspect tertiary employment will come from distribution of goods along the new modernized rail links," he states. "As the railyards expand in McAdam, more employment will be available to the many folks in Vanceboro that hold dual citizenship. Thus, the anticipated economic expansion is providing hope for renewal at a personal and local level as well as at the regional level."
  Currently about two trains pass through Vanceboro each way every day; the Port of Saint John will be increasing its container capacity to 300,000 in the late fall, and once it reaches 800,000 Stannix estimates that four additional trains each way per day through Vanceboro would be required. If CBP only provides officers to clear trains through a 12-hour window, that level of traffic would be difficult to manage. But he notes, "If CBP was to provide rail support through a 24-hour window, it could be argued the CBP staff are already in Vanceboro and therefore could open the port to vehicle traffic 24 hours per day while not handling trains."
  At the July 5 meeting, CBP officials said they have entered into an agreement with NBM Railways to provide a pay-for-service arrangement for any additional personnel required to handle train traffic during the port's 12 hours of operation.
  Given the additional economic data that CBP received at the July 5 meeting, Stannix says they "should consider issuing a moratorium on their decision to reduce port hours of operation for the next three to five years. This way, they could see if the anticipated regional growth occurs and take the time to confer with stakeholders to help determine a truer understanding of the region's need for the continued 24/7 operation of the Port of Vanceboro."
  Maine Rep. Jeffrey Evangelos of Friendship, who began his public service career in Vanceboro and has been helping with the effort to stop the proposal, comments, "While the Canadian government invests millions of dollars in its people, rail infrastructure and the port of Saint John, my government, the U.S. government, does the opposite, strangling the aspirations of a people and a region that is in great need of economic investment. Quite frankly, it's a disgrace. Given the ongoing investment in transportation and rail infrastructure on the Canadian side, this CBP proposal for Vanceboro should be dead on arrival."
  CBP officials say that the reduction in hours could happen in early September and that only 30 days' notice needs to be given. Long, head of the select board, says, "I think the decision has already been made, but we're going to fight it any way."
  Brissette of CBP says that "consideration will be given to the local public and stakeholders' questions, statements and concerns." He notes that CBP is creating a mailbox where interested parties can continue sharing their ideas, concerns and thoughts about the planned reduction.