Raymond,
Don’t be beating up on people in VT who have no knowledge of RRs or people who are trying to do the right thing and make a trail–that has lots of economic potential from a long derelict and forgotten place–the LVRT.
Here’s a rather lengthy piece I wrote as an Op-Ed column that lays out the RR history of the corridor and why it doesn’t make sense to run as a RR anymore–but does make sense to become a rail trail.
As I said, don’t be bothering people up there, call me. . .
Sunday November 30, 2003
Hardwick Gazette
P. O. Box 367
Hardwick, VT 05843-0367
Dear Letter to the Editor:
I was recently forwarded a series of lengthy letters to your newspaper about the St. Johnsbury and Lake Champlain Railroad [or St. Johnsbury and Lamoille County as it has more recently been called (St.J & LC).]
Each of the letters, by the various authors, though well written, have points that are either misleading or inaccurate. Lets start at the beginning.
In the years after the civil war, an effort was begun in Vermont to charter railroad companies to build a line that connected to a new railroad from Portland, Maine, (Portland & Ogdensburg Railroad later Maine Central Railroad) The intention was to build west out of St. Johnsbury all the way to Lake Champlain and actually beyond into Canada. Finally, open in 1877, the life of the railroad began to take an ominous series of twists and turns, reorganizations and bankruptcies that seemed to never end. Severe storms were always a problem, severing the line numerous times.
Traffic either originating or terminating on the line was never enough to be profitable and the bridge traffic–traffic that originated off-line, and then was transported by the St. J& LC to a place that terminated off line was the only saving grace. The railr