Maine’s Potatoes Take the ‘Iron Road’

For the first time in more than four decades, Maine’s potatoes used the railway when leaving Aroostook County, bound for big markets. That’s due to a roughly 20% greater 2021 potato yield than average, thanks to near-perfect growing conditions, and because of the trucking shortage.

In November 2021, Maine Potato Board Executive Director, Don Flannery, declared that most raw and processed potatoes moved out of the county via truck, which was even more challenging with slowdowns and driver shortages. “The whole thing had delayed movement of The County’s crop to market”, Flannery said, cited by BDN. That’s why, he added, rail would be ideal, but refrigeration was needed for perishable products like potatoes.

“The Maine Northern Railroad and Union Pacific Railway arranged for refrigerated rail cars to be sent to Van Buren,” Maine Department of Transportation’s representatives wrote on Twitter, cited by the above-mentioned source. “Thirty-three refrigerated rail cars are now loaded with spuds and bound for Washington state.”