NY to Adirondack railroad: one more year

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21

@ David dePentu
There are plenty of ironies to go around in this matter. NYS, the Federal gov’t and most other states of the Republic subsidize passenger travel – some States including NYS pay subsidies for rail, the Feds to all modes, and all States subsidize cars and trucks with the highway system.

Removing passenger rail into the heart of the Adirondacks, to the two largest and best known communities of Lake Placid and Saranac Lake, will hasten the decline of both.

Tens of thousands of visitors paid to come to Saranac Lake this year to ride the scenic train and the new rail bike attraction. The rail bike company did an online survey of some of the 15,000 people who came to ride in a 100 day season – the 14 question survey sample was sent to 2650 customers, the response by 1256 is astounding. Hundreds of the respondents said they came only because of the rail bikes and would not have come to walk or ride a bike on a rail trail – they also said they would do it again and tell their families and friends.

The ultimate irony will be if the Gov of NYS, who is a big booster of business in the ADKs and the north country, allows the removal of the rails and puts two successful businesses that draw paying customers that also support local businesses, out of business.

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Bob Hest, first of all, please go back to my earlier post and answer my points about the business plan and why NYS should provide a huge subsidy for 7,000 annual passengers.

Lake Placid and Saranac Lake may be two of the largest communities in the Adirondacks, but they are still very small when it comes to rail transport. Utica’s population is 62,000 and Lake Placid’s is 2,500 with only another 9,000 scattered along this 140 mile, dead-end route. Does any thinking reader of Trains actually think this is rail passenger territory? Remember that Amtrak’s Adirondack along Lake Champlain links the Albany metro area (pop. 870,000) to Montreal (pop. 1.6 million) with another 120,000 living along the line still needs a $7 million annual subsidy from NYS to continue to operate.

There is no question that the rail bikes were a success this summer, but they didn’t have to pay for the rehab of the causeway of Saranac Lake so they could operate safely. Under the current plan, they can move to Tupper Lake - a town that needs an economic stimulus more than Saranac Lake.