NOW MOVE THE DEVIL RAYS TO MONTREAL:

A long-delayed proposal to connect Montreal to Boston via an overnight sleeper train appears to be back on track as proponents of the service, along with elected officials from Quebec, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont gathered Thursday in rural Quebec to throw their collective political weight behind it.

"This is a brilliant time for us to reconvene and make this vision a reality," said state Senator Richard Bennett of Maine, a Republican from Oxford. "The expansion of passenger rail is of great interest throughout Maine, across both political parties." [...]

The route would be on existing freight tracks owned by multiple rail companies. Discussions with railways are at a preliminary stage, Pepin said. Despite all of that, the sleeper train has become a popular topic of conversation in Quebec. (Even a border crossing guard expressed excitement about the possibility.) It's hard not to be drawn to the concept: A train with a club car, a dining car, and sleeper cars is the stuff of Agatha Christie novels and recalls the glamorous age of train travel.

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