Ridgefielder wrote: ↑Wed Feb 17, 2021 9:34 amFor what it's worth, the Maybrook outlasted the Poughkeepsie Bridge by close to 20 years. Conrail ran daily Selkirk-Cedar Hill road freights via Beacon, Hopewell Jct., Brewster and Danbury until they unloaded the Danbury cluster to the HRRC in 1992.Which is another way of saying it's been nearly 30 years since anyone has tried to seriously use it.
30 years in which customers have vanished, freight power with signal support for operating on the Hudson line hasn't been purchased, signals have been removed, grade crossings have gone severely out of favor, and the tracks themselves have fallen into disrepair.
I have no problem if they want to keep it, but it seems like from a pure cost of upkeep and cost of actual use, vs tiny benefit compared to just paying to use the maintained alternative, they don't.
It's the part between Southeast and Danbury I find surprising. When I originally read about the equipment rescues I assumed they went over the winding hill route to the Hudson line. Realizing they actually just did the short distance from Danbury to Southeast, keeping that part makes sense, the rest seemingly not.
Anyway the fiber optic line presumably means they'll maintain ownership and not transfer it to parks, even if the later eventually ends up administering the surface.