A sampling of Adirondack scenery in the Fall.
If it weren't for a heads-up from
NARP, I wouldn't have gotten the word about hearings that could well change forever access to the Adirondack Mountains. There's a rail line currently run by the
Adirondack Scenic Railroad out of Utica, NY all the way up to Lake Placid and the High Peaks - at least it could. That possibility might be about to be eliminated forever.
More below the Orange Omnilepticon.
North Country Public Radio has the story.
The state said it is moving forward with a roughly $20-million plan to remove the railroad tracks between Lake Placid and Tupper Lake, and maintain and enhance rail service south of Tupper Lake.
State regulators have added a second hearing on the proposal. In addition to the original hearing scheduled for tonight in Tupper Lake, a hearing will now be held July 20 in Utica. Advocates of extending the Scenic Railroad instead of removing the tracks and creating a multi-use trail requested the Utica hearing.
In the meantime, the start of tourist train service on part of the railroad has been delayed due to a series of track repairs and a legal battle over a crossing near Saranac Lake.
The fate of the rail corridor has been hotly debated for years. Trail advocates pressed the state to rip up the rails while train buffs want the dilapidated tracks restored. At last month's Adirondack Park Agency meeting, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation's Rob Davies said public opinion is "fairly evenly split." "The rail is favored in communities south of Tupper Lake," Davies said. "The trail is favored in communities north of Tupper Lake. This obviously is not unanimous throughout those communities. There are people who have differing opinions, but the communities seem to break that way."
I'm not going to try for nuance here; I think removing the rails would be a huge mistake. I've been following this for decades (that's how long the debate has been going on), and the basics haven't shifted all that much.
There are those who want the rails gone, and the railbed turned into trails. They see the track as an intrusion into a natural space, they don't like the possibilities for development it offers, and they don't believe there's any way to run passenger trains without losing money.
While they want the rails gone, I rather suspect they would be perfectly happy walking a steady, easy grade with sturdy bridges over watercourses, no matter how unnatural that would be. Further, there's a contingent who don't see these as hiking trails or cross country skiing trails - they see them as snowmobile trails. There are also those who see trains as a potential safety hazard and a waste of taxpayer money, because they'll inevitably need subsidies.
From the State's viewpoint, there are competing interests. New York wants to promote tourism, but what kind, and how to fund it? Transportation policy is still car-centric; funding highways is generally supported by the public and there are mechanisms in place to do it - not so for rail lines. Is it tourism? Industrial? Commercial? What about highway crossings? Life would be a lot simpler for the State if the tracks were just gone.
The Adirondacks are a beautiful place to visit, but a hard place to make a living. As far as supporting the railroad with freight business - which is where the money is - there's not a lot of industry/shipping along the line to generate it. It's a chicken and egg problem - there has to be frequent reliable service to generate business, but without business, why invest in the service? Developing freight business would be a years-long process, and not one those opposed to development would support in any case. It would - and this would be key - involve more support from the state. How much is New York willing to invest in creating sustainable jobs in the Adirondacks, and would the state be willing to make rail part of the picture?
On the eastern side of the Adirondacks, Iowa Pacific's rail operation between Saratoga and North Creek has been attempting to build freight business on the line to generate revenue. Tourist trains are not enough. As with the Adirondack Scenic Railroad, the rail operator does not own the line - yet they have to cope with maintaining it and dealing with damage.
The railway, which operates a scenic train year-round between the Saratoga Springs rail station and North Creek in northern Warren County, has lost more than $1 million over the past four years, said Ed Ellis, president of Iowa Pacific Holdings of Chicago, which owns the line.
“The train itself makes a profit, but when you throw in all the costs like track rehabilitation and track maintenance, we are losing money,” Ellis said in an interview on Friday.
emphasis added
It's a demonstration of how the scales are tilted against rail operation. The line operators do not own the the rail line any more than truckers and other commercial vehicles they compete with own the highways they drive over - but the government will pick up the tab for highway repairs and maintenance while the rail operators are stuck with the bill and whatever Mother Nature throws at them. Plus, operating through the Adirondacks means they are under especial scrutiny from Encon (Environmental Conservation) regarding what they do and how they do it. The public may be okay with government support of roads they can drive on versus tracks they can't - and yet rail operations that could take some of the cars and trucks off those roads would make driving better and reduce the wear and tear on those same highways. This is one of those places where the public-private interest meet in complex ways - and the American political system does not do complex well.
Right now, there's an isolated section at the north end running trains between Saranac Lake and Lake Placid, a gap from there between Tupper Lake and Big Moose/Carter Station, with the remaining service from there through Thendara/Old Forge down to Remsen/Utica. The state plan calls for turning the north end into trails, while bringing the gap back into full service.
As destinations go, Lake Placid is still the big name on the route. The state plan seems practical, but if Lake Placid is taken out of the picture, it's not hard to suspect it's really a plan to let the line wither away from the north end. Barring the possibility of freight revenue any time soon, it would seem to make sense if it is going to be a tourist rail line, to keep Lake Placid in the picture. Would anyone ride the Grand Canyon Railway if it stopped 10 miles short of the canyon?
For my own part, there's a number of things that concern me. History is one - the rail line in question used to be a key entry into the Adirondacks in the days before the car and the highway. It was the building of tracks into the mountains that made them accessible - and paradoxically introduced the Adirondacks to enough people that the Forever Wild Adirondack Park was able to make it through the State Legislature. There used to be an entire transportation net through the Adirondacks based on trains, boats on the waterways, and horse drawn vehicles in the days before the automobile. Odds are, any sizable Adirondack community founded before 1900 would not have existed without links to some kind of railroad.
It's the 21st century now; do we really want to leave the high peaks area accessible to the outside world only for those able to drive or fly in? Do we want to limit exposure to the north woods only to those prepared and physically able to walk or paddle - or willing to invest in the snow-going equivalent of a motor cycle? Shouldn't we also factor in the desires of an aging population for travel alternatives? Further, the line has this advantage - the southern end is at Utica/Remsen, which means it's possible make connections to the line directly from Amtrak service along one of Amtrak's main east-west routes.
It's not a Rails OR Trails choice - it's possible to have both. In an ideal world, there would be an integrated travel network that would build on the strengths of all these competing demands to create a mutually-supporting synergy. We should be willing to give the same kind of financial support to rail that we give to roads. $20 million dollars may sound like a lot of money - but New York State was willing to spend a million dollars a day for weeks to catch two escaped murderers. It's a question of priorities. The state is trying to stimulate the upstate economy by the latest fad for such thing - licensing casinos. Supporting rail operations would seem to be a far better use of money, and a lot less of a gamble.
The Adirondacks are not just a local treasure - they are known around the world, thanks to the early example set by the creation of the Adirondack Park. It's more than a local issue.
If you're interested in more about the line, the Adirondack Scenic Railroad website has maps and info. Information about the plans for the line as proposed by the State Department of Environmental Conservation and the Department of Transportation can be found here. The public hearing at Tupper Lake was set for July 8; an additional public hearing has been set for July 20 in Utica.
If you can't get to Utica, you can still make your opinions known.
The UMP Amendment is expected to be posted to DEC’s website by Friday here, where additional documents about the corridor are already posted. A public hearing is planned for Tupper Lake Middle-High School on Wednesday, July 8, at 7 pm.
DEC and DOT are accepting written comments until July 27th via email to adirondackpark@dec.ny.gov or addressed to the following:
John Schmid, NYSDEC, 625 Broadway, Albany, NY, 12233-4254
Dawn Klemm, NYSDOT Region 2, 207 Genesee Street, Utica, NY 13501
- See more at: http://www.adirondackalmanack.com/...
If you can't make it to Utica for the hearing, and you want to weigh in on this, get your comments in by July 27, because once the rails are gone, they're not coming back.
UPDATE: Reports from the Tupper Lake hearing are in. Trail advocates are determined to see the tracks removed not just from the north end of the line, but all through the section that's currently out of service as well.
Several of the speakers Wednesday night were from Adirondack Recreational Trail Advocates, a nonprofit group that wants the state to remove the tracks between Big Moose and Lake Placid and create a 79-mile recreational trail that they contend will attract tens of thousands of visitors each year, including cyclists in warm weather and snowmobilers in winter.
Hope Frenette, a Tupper Lake resident and ARTA board member, said a rail trail will enable visitors to enjoy the natural beauty surrounding Tupper Lake and enable the former logging town to shift to a tourist economy. “Our lakes, rivers, mountains, and forests are what we have to work with,” she said.
emphasis added
Rail Supporters made their points in defense of the line and against taking Lake Placid out of the picture.
Bill Branson, president of the Adirondack Railway Preservation Society, which runs tourist trains in the corridor, argued that it makes more sense to fix up the rail line all the way to Lake Placid, which is more popular than Tupper Lake as a tourist destination. “We believe there’s a better way, and we’re going to continue to scrap for that,” he said.
...Amy Catania of Historic Saranac Lake pointed out that the corridor is on the National Register of Historic Places. Removing the tracks, she said, would destroy part of the region’s heritage.
The report cites the state's refusal to consider rail AND trail options because of legal and environmental reasons, which presumably can be found among
the pdf files on the Unit Management Plan..
Meanwhile, there's one group that seems to be enjoying the status quo while the future of the line is in limbo.
The bottom line here seems to be that the hikers, bikers, and snowmobilers A) have the numbers, and B) they want the rails gone ASAP. The state appears to be unwilling to consider accommodating rail and trail, and the UMP plan looks like an empty compromise that at best will leave the line to Tupper Lake as a less than viable train to nowhere, compared to restoring service all the way to Lake Placid.
The hearing at Utica will be critical if rail supporters are going to make an impact; the trail contingent is already planning to show up in numbers. According to the report,
...That hearing will start at 4 pm in the State Office Building at 207 Genesee Street. In addition, the state will receive written comments through July 27. Comments can be emailed to adirondackpark@dec.ny.gov or mailed to: John Schmid, Natural Resources Planner, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, 625 Broadway, 5th Floor, Albany, NY 12233-4254.
DEC expects to present a final proposal to the Adirondack Park Agency in October. The APA must review the proposal to ensure it complies with the Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan.
There's one
comment from a Lake Placid resident; I've responded at length.
9:55 AM PT: One More Thing I'm including a link to a BBC Travel story that provides a look into what rail travel can really be like when the emphasis is on the experience. http://www.bbc.com/...