pnaw10 wrote:Expansion further north is not too likely -- the track bed north of Wassaic has been taken over by the Harlem Valley Rail Trail. As has been said on this board many times in the past... once the tracks are removed, it's tough (and expensive) to put them back. When the track bed has been replaced by a trail, you can all but forget about it. As you can see on the HVRTA website, MTA no longer owns the trackbed. Even though the bed is now owned by other parts of the state government, it's highly unlikely those agencies would simply give the land back to MTA unless there's a desperate, compelling need to extend the line. (Even then, it might be tough... but I don't see that even being a concern in the foreseeable future.)
Well, there might be some real issues in getting a rail “trail” converted back into a functioning railway; that is most certainly a fact. However, those issues, no matter how difficult to surmount, would STILL be a whole lot easier to address than trying to re-establish service over an abandoned right-of-way that has been encroached upon by development. Once you get some houses or supermarkets planted on top of where the rail line once ran, there is no hope.
I was an active member in the rail trail movement for a few years and sent them some contributions. One of their bylines was to “preserve” corridors in case “the economies of trains change” necessitating a come-back in the future. That was a good selling point to me so I made some contributions.
However, I understand that there has been some major opposition from trail proponents when it actually comes down to re-establishing rail service. It seems to me that there was an issue out in the State of Washington where they were attempting to do just that and the trail proponents were screaming bloody murder over it.
In any case, there is a lesson to be learned in all this that I hope we’re learning albeit slowly but surely. When a rail line is no longer needed, it is almost always a bad idea to dismantle and obliterate it – a very bad idea. It’s almost impossible to look out 20 or 30 years in advance – never mind 50 or more years – and know what kind of transportation needs an area is going to have. As it turns out, many of these lines may need to be put back. Personally, I suspect the Wassaic – Chatham line is one such case in point. However, for this to ever happen, it will be absolutely and completely necessary for the communities along the line to support this.
Think about his for a minute. We “Baby Boomers” are aging fast. In a few more years many of us may need to give up driving. When we reach that point, many of us are going to wonder where the heck our public transportation is. It would be really swell to have some of our passenger trains back.
Fred M. Cain,
Aging “Boomer” and ex-New Yorker in Topeka, Indiana
Site Admin Edit for correct quoting; please be careful when using quotes to quote the correct person. No harm no foul
Fred M. Cain,
New Haven Railroad fan
Not afraid to use my own name