The Original intent of the WOW Trail was the creation of Rail with Trail". Now the WOW Trail people have gone rogue armed with a taxpayer funded study that basically tells them (what they want to hear) that removing the tracks, today from Lakeport to Weirs Beach, and tomorrow the entire corridor is the answer to all their economic problems, the golden goose, the panacea, the promised land, the shining star.. Take the rails up and say hello to the sunshine.. Every car will be heading off of Exit 20 with a bike rack, in fact Route 3 will have to be widened to 6 lanes, (4 road & 2 bike) and the property around local businesses around the bike path will be taken by eminent domain, just because there is no enough parking to support all those people who are coming just to ride from Lakeport to Weirs Beach on their bicycles. .. Sounds too good to be true, doesn't it..
I say it's wrong, the study is based "Fuzzy Math", pure speculation, and terribly misguided information. You can ready the study on the WOW Trail's website, there's the 17 page summary with a link to the long form paper. Just squint really really hard to look for the link to it on their home page.. Taking up the tracks will put the railroad operations on the stranded side, eventually out of business. Obviously there's no provisions for things like it would cost a bloody fortune to move a single piece of railroad equipment from the stranded side to where access is to the national rail network.. Plus there is also ZERO mention that the section of track from Lakeport to Weirs Beach is a HUGE part of the Winnipesaukee Scenic's "Local Trains" that run 2,3, even 4x a day between Meredith to the Lakeport Runaround in season. People travel from all over to ride the railroad, especially in the Fall. I could go on, and on, but I am saving my efforts for where it counts..
I have nothing against rail to trails where there is absolutely zero chance of a line seeing any traffic like on the Goffstown Rail Trail, but here, they are talking pick one or the other, on a line that is 100% active from Concord to Lincoln. The discussion needs to go back to "Rail with Trail" as there is no reason both entities can co-exist.