Orford Express


The Orford Express, a tourist train between Magog and Sherbrooke, Quebec, operates seasonally on the former Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway line through Quebec's Eastern Townships. A dinner train which operates from early May to end-December, it is owned and operated separately from the underlying tracks.

History

The rail line through Farnham, Sherbrooke and Lac-Mégantic originally continued as the International Railway of Maine, part of the Canadian Pacific Railway system, through Brownville Junction, Maine to Saint John, New Brunswick. Built in the 1880s, the CPR abandoned this line to the first in a series of short-line operators in 1994. Subsequent owners of the underlying line include Iron Road Railways, Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway and now the Central Maine and Quebec Railway.
VIA Rail formerly provided Atlantic passenger train service on this line, but abandoned the route when the tracks were sold in 1994.
A long history of deferred maintenance under various short-line operators caused the tracks to deteriorate, necessitating speed reductions on much of the line.
The Orford Express, launched in 2006, covers one small portion of the route seasonally, at low speed using its own trains with tourist panorama cars. The train runs from May to December, with special runs during the holiday season between Christmas and New Year's Eve. There are two dining cars and seating for 140 passengers.

Operational Setbacks

On July 6, 2013, an unattended 74-car freight train carrying Bakken Formation crude oil rolled down a 1.2% grade from Nantes and derailed in downtown Lac-Mégantic, resulting in the fire and explosion of multiple tank cars and the confirmed death of forty-two people and five more missing and presumed dead.
On October 11, 2013 Transport Canada imposed an embargo on the line between Lennoxville and Lac-Mégantic due to poor track conditions, necessitating cancellation of a planned special train to Lac-Mégantic, Quebec which was to have run from Thanksgiving to Halloween.
On April 25, 2014 the service was cancelled for the season due to accidental fire damage to one of the panorama cars. The season was to have started May 7.
Regular operation of the tourist train resumed in 2016.