A U.S. bankruptcy court judge yesterday approved a $3 million loan from Camden National Bank that will allow the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway to continue operating with two-man crews running the trains, the Bangor (Maine) Daily News reported yesterday. Canadian authorities in August had ordered the railroad to use two-man crews for all hazardous material transportation in response to the July 6 Lac-Megantic disaster, which killed 47 people. The loan is structured as a revolving line of credit up to $3 million and may be used only as working capital, according to court documents. It will be secured by the property and tracks the railroad owns in the U.S. and Canada. “The loan will ensure that the [MMA] and MMA Canada have adequate working capital to continue operating pending a sale of their assets,” bankruptcy trustee Robert Keach wrote in his motion seeking approval of the loan. Without it, the railway would have run out of operating cash by the end of October, Keach said. Eight potential suitors have expressed interest in purchasing MMA’s assets, and seven have signed nondisclosure agreements, Keach confirmed Wednesday. Gordian Group, a New York-based investment bank Keach has secured to handle the sale of MMA’s assets, is speaking with the suitors this week, according to Keach, who hopes to begin the auction by the end of November. The railway sought bankruptcy protection a month after one of its trains rolled driverless down a hill before derailing in the middle of the town of Lac-Megantic, causing the fiery explosion that killed 47 people and destroyed the village’s central business district.
