J.D. Lang wrote: ↑Sat Feb 13, 2021 11:57 amTrail people are winning everywhere in NYS.
What's really weird is that to the best of my knowledge MNR just built the new 23 mail trail segment from Brewster to Hopewell in a way that
preserved the single line of tracks that are all that's been there for years.
You'd think if they were going to abandon it, the time to do so would be before building a trail that looked like it was going to require attention to fit alongside at various bridges, etc.
But that trail was state money funneled through MNR specifically for that purpose, and maybe in the process of watching the work they got to thinking about what it was going to take to get the rails back in usable shape.
But this was sold and approved as "rail with trail" and
not "trail instead of rail".
Though if they eventually do something with the beacon secondary that would seem to be trail in place of rail, and neither segment of rails seems of any use without the other...
At the end of the day, the value of the new trail, the existing trail to and over the poughkeepsie bridge, and the Putnam Division trail rests quite heavily on the fact that they remain connected to
active rail with frequent, affordable, bike-friendly service at Brewster and Poushkeepsie. Being able to do those lengthy rides as one-way pedals with rail return makes them far more valuable than and out-and-back of comparable length. Passenger service along the Brewster-Poughkeepsie route would have been a great asset for that trail - but realistically it's far too many miles winding through nowhere to be useful as a passenger route.