AUBURN (WGME) — The public will get a chance to weigh in next week on a proposal to connect Portland with Lewiston and Auburn by train.

Passenger rail service to the twin cities has been talked about for decades, but now the state is studying the impact it could have.

The Economic Evaluation Study looks at how much growth the proposed service could bring to the local and regional economy.

“What we’re trying to gauge is what additional development might be spurred by implementing a rail service,” Nate Moulton with Maine DOT said. “Whether it be in retail, housing and other things like that.”

A 2019 evaluation of the service show it could run on a few different routes, with possible stops in Portland, Yarmouth, New Gloucester, Auburn and Lewiston. An estimate cost in 2019 dollars was estimated to be upwards of $250 million.

“To say it will happen and when it will happen, that’s hard to predict,” Moulton said. “But we’re continuing to look at it.”

For the communities along the proposed corridor, there’s hope that this new study will give the project added momentum to move forward.

“We all need to recognize that it’s absolutely needed,” Auburn Mayor Jason Levesque said. “We’re connected with an interstate, we’re connected by freight rail, we’re connected with air travel and now we can be connected with passenger rail.”

Levesque believes as the region has grown, transportation options have yet to catch up and believes train travel could bridge the gap for those communizing daily to southern Maine.

“This isn’t about someone from Auburn wanting to do a weekend in Boston every 6 months,” Levesque said. “This is about people that need to get to Portland or need to get to Auburn for work. They need to make sure the trains are running on their schedules.”