to the long-neglected line in 2011-2012, including replacement of 50,000 ties and portions of the stone rail bed. Irving Transportation Services, which owns and operates New Brunswick Railway Company (and subsidiaries New Brunswick Southern Railway / Eastern Maine Railway) established a new subsidiary Maine Northern Railway in June 2011 to operate the line, hiring an additional thirty workers and acquiring additional locomotives and rolling stock. In December 2011, the MMA agreed to sell the remaining of track between Madawaska, Maine and Van Buren, Maine, MMA's last track in northern Maine, to Irving outright. The red ink continued to flow; in 2011, MMA was losing four to five million dollars a year. An attempt to sell the entire MM&A operation in 2011 failed as US government loans provided to the railway were not transferable to a subsequent buyer. 2012 Sainte-Rosalie abandonment MMA suspended freight service on July 16, 2012 over the Ste Rosalie Subdivision without prior notice to its customers. This rail line connecting the MMA main line at Farnham, Quebec north to Sainte-Rosalie in the Montérégie region of Québec was inspected in May 2012 by Transport Canada and was deemed to be non-compliant with recently updated "Rules Respecting Track Safety" implemented by Transport Canada. The non-compliance was due to ongoing cost-cutting by MMA which resulted in deferred maintenance to the track between 2002 and 2012. MMA claimed the new "Rules Respecting Track Safety" was a force majeure and sufficient reason to terminate train operations without first complying with Section 140 of the Canada Transportation Act detailing requirements for "Transferring and Discontinuing the Operation of Railway Lines". The CTA legislation states that railway companies must give one year advance notice. Two local clients affected by MMA's suspension of service, F. Ménard Inc. and Meunerie Côté-Paquet, have since initiated lawsuits against the railway. In 2013 MMA attempted to abandon the right of way and sell it to local municipalities. Because of the poor condition of the tracks on this section, if the sale were successful, the rails would likely be removed and the property converted to a rail trail. 2012 Oil shipments The MMA had been constantly struggling financially since it was formed in 2002 due to economic problems facing its primary customers in the forestry industry. The forestry industry in Maine and Quebec fared poorly in the Great Recession of 2008-2010 and in 2010, MMA cut its workforce dramatically and sold