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New York to review railroad corridor plans
NYS is involved, add the DEC. Its dead.
Assuming that the result is a multi-purpose useage, then the railroad should endeavor to not provide passenger (tourist or other) and freight service to the 6 cities and towns that want to see the rails eliminated.
Please write to Gov. Cuomo expressing suport for the railroad. Also please get up there and patronize the trains. Otherwise it will be gone.
It would be great to see the Utica-Lake Placid rail line restored. NIMBYs, go home!
You know, at some point some Gusian Rail Trail advocate is going to start campaigning to turn the NEC into a trail…
The blogger Atrios has been asking for a while - we have “Big Oil”, where is “Big Train”? Why is there no concerted lobby for passenger rail? And before you say “Well, it’s not that profitable”, ask companies like WABTEC, Bombardier, Talgo, et al, whether they’re making money out of the expansion of passenger rail… It’s not like the “owners of (tarmac) roads” are the ones lobbying for the expansion in road building.
It would be nice to see the the six towns that voted against the railroad bypassed should the connection be made with the two current portions. Let them reap the rewards of shortsightedness.
I rode the rails with my family several times…Its just great and some of the track speed is at 40 miles a hour…The ride is very nice and the view is just what you need to relax and enjoy the ride…i will write to the Govenor and i have been a member of railroda and i fully support keeping it and expanding it to Lake Pacid…
I don’t live even close to New York State ( I live in Tennessee) is there anything that I can do to help in this situation? Writting to Governor Cuomo was mentioned above. Would he listen to a letter from an out-of-stater like myself?
There are many trails in the Adirondacks, how many do they need? I would love to take the train from Remson to Lake Placid. At my age, I’m darn sure not going to hike it. I now ride the Utica to Old Forge frequently and love it.
Good idea Russell. I’ll be in Rochester for the Penn Central Convention in September, so I’ll make the time to take a ride on the Adirondack Scenic Railroad.
Yuppie rail grabbers at it again! Those clowns are so selfish.
The 1996 Corridor Management Plan only offered private operators the option to restore with “mostly private funding.” The service that has been restored has been restored only with the State or Federal governments paying all the capital costs. Additionally, the State annually subsidizes about 20% of their operating costs. An expansion to Lake Placid will require many additional millions in State money; and the service will require a significant additional subsidy. Furthermore, running a train with the few that will choose six hour service when the road is half or less is not in any way fuel efficient.
Even if the rails were restored to Class III, I suspect CSX would laugh at any proposal to operate this line. If it can’t be rail, let’s take the next best option and make it a trail - a trail that will be totally different from all the other trails in the Adirondacks and attract a wholly different group of visitors.
I live a lot further than Tennessee, but that won’t stop me from putting in a submission to the State of NY. The days when you casually ‘pull up’ a major hunk of rail infrastructure in a world of energy uncertainty is more than irrational. The two operating segments need support.
I live a lot further than Tennessee, but that won’t stop me from putting in a submission to the State of NY. The days when you casually ‘pull up’ a major hunk of rail infrastructure in a world of energy uncertainty is more than irrational. The two operating segments need support.
Something I doubt the commission will take into account, the hikers and bikers are not zero-emissions users of the right of way, either.
Is this right-of-way so narrow, they cannot co-exist safely?
Letters to Gov. Cuomo and DEC from out-of-staters would be useful and welcome, I’m sure - mention future plans to visit New York State - tourism in this area is quite a driver of the local economy.
Can we counterlobby the State government and ask them to turn I-95 into a trail?
The one reply to my comment did not address any of the issues I raised about the operation of the Adirondack Scenic Railroad. Do any readers actually have a reply?
In the not too distant future there may come a day when fuel hits $6 or 7 or more dollars a gallon, and a rail trail will appear as what it really is “a special interest item”. In New Jersey a rail line that connects the central shore area to the North Jersey Coast line as been studied as a commuter line for 30 years, but after untold millions of dollars it still sits unused because of NIMY special interest groups. Now it is being restored to service for sand trains, and hopefully that will give it the time needed to be restored to commuter services which would do more to clean the air then any other item. We have those who only see what is good for them and no one else but them.