We have a screwy form of Village Government in Walden, with a Village Manager who is NOT beholden to the electorate (and don't even get me going on the subject of the Village Board).
The root of all this nonsense is an attempted land grab (gee, what a surprise).
The Village Manager and his consultant buddy Alan Sorensen came up with this pipe dream to rezone all of the area around the former Walden station site (station itself was moved several blocks away into a Village park years ago) as a mixed-use zone, with the notion of creating this entire business/residential center. In so doing they made all of the businesses and remaining industrial firms non-complying. So, while not an immediate issue, the land mines are already in place for uprooting the businesses.
The "Train to the City" isn't. The plan is to offer a shuttle to Campbell Hall. By the way, the plan was hatched BEFORE anybody talked to NS or the MTA. Truth be told, at the outset, the Village Manager didn't even know what railroad ran in town, as evidenced by testimony at Village Board meetings that CSX would be the railroad to contact!
It's not about the trains.
I spoke to several of the Village Board members to describe what would be involved in resurrecting the line for passenger service
That's roughly 10 miles of essentially FRA Class 1 track (maybe generously class 2 in some places) of Erie 90-pound and NYC 105 Dudley stick rail (maybe some better relay here and there), at least 16 grade crossing without lights/gates, with two crossings of State Highways). Consider the ballpark figure of $1.5 million/mile for ties/resurfacing, and $100K for lights/flashers at each crossing, more at Routes 17K and 207. Property acquisition/condemnation for station sites, and the loss of that plus the right-of-way from the tax base (MTA runs on it, no taxes....), and you have a pretty penny of expenses. That doesn't include replacement of the stick rail, either. I met with several Village Board members and laid this out -obviously to no avail.
It's not about the trains.
...And for what clientele? Nobody has a clue how many people from the area use Metro-North. (Remember, they contacted Metro-North after the fact).
You’re going to wait for a train, to go wait for a train, to go wait for a train? Alternative is 20-minute drive to Campbell Hall, get on the train - which still will generally require at least one more change of train/bus/ferry/PATH/subway ride to get to the City.
How would you transfer from a shuttle at Campbell Hall and a Port Jervis train? Wye tracks are not really near the existing, relatively new station and parking area. Nobody from Village government has talked to Town of Montgomery, Village of Montgomery, or the Town of Hamptonburgh how this might impact them, either.
It's not about the trains.
There's no open space to park in Walden, even if you wanted to create a Transit village. As it is, the shops on Main Street/Route 52 are chronically complaining about the lack of parking. The Walden Industrial, or remnant of the Wallkill Valley stub ends at Route 52, where the old low-clearance truss bridge over Route 52 was removed. Aside from the Fire Department parking lot just south of the Route 208 Bridge, there is no open space of any consequence near the tracks for this proposed "transit village" type development. There are a few "underutilized" former mill buildings in this vicinity, including the former Ericsson/Paulsen Spence facility. The Village Manager has already decided these are suitable of adaptive reuse as office/residential buildings. Didn't bother talking to the owners beforehand, though!
Village Trustee Dick Hurd is fond of saying "I'm not telling any property owner what to do with their property". But we'll change zoning laws to do just that, and decide what people should do with their property without consulting with them. A polite word for that is "inconsistent"....I'm personally inclined not to be that polite.
But if you push out the existing businesses, and position them through zoning rule changes so they eventually have to dump their property, you'll eliminate the reason for the railroad to be there, to begin with.... well, you can figure out what's going on.
It's not about the trains.
What's particularly interesting is a year or so ago there was a big uproar in town centered over the Villages' proposed purchase of a brand-new garage/office from Degroot Paving, on Route 52 and adjacent to the physical end-of-track, allegedly for use by the Village Department of Public Works. Building wouldn't have fit the DPW needs, and would have required all sorts of ADA compliance upgrades for public use. And who wants another pit of a DPW facility right on the main drag into town? (Refer to current DPW facility).
After much vitrics, the $400K purchase of the building was shot down.
So now this new proposal appears.
And lastly, you have Rep. Su Kelly's initiative to bring rail service to Stewart Airport, which already has a pile of money allocated to it. Not by any stretch of imagination will it tie into Walden.
Who do you think is going to get the money, if at all?