Tourist train. Photo: Warren County website.
(11/14/11) The North Country Regional Economic Development Council's draft strategic plan, due to the state today, includes support for rehabilitating of the Remsen-Lake Placid rail corridor.
The latest version of the plan supports state, federal and private funding for rehabbing the entire railroad, from Remsen all the way to Lake Placid. The plan calls the corridor the "last remaining rail access into the central Adirondacks." The council's draft plan also says accommodations should be made for a multi-use recreational trail.
But the corridor is controversial, and not everyone is pleased that it's included in the strategic plan. Chris Morris reports.
One of the
economic council’s “Over-arching Strategies” calls for maintaining railroad
infrastructure across the North Country.
In years
one through five of the strategic plan, the council supports the development of
high-speed rail in the New York-Montreal corridor, rehabiltation of the
Remsen-Lake Placid line and upgrades to CSX rail infrastructure between
Watertown and Newton Falls.
The
council is prioritizing a rail rehabilitation project between Saranac Lake and
Tupper Lake, and rail supporters were pleased to hear that.
David
Tomberlin is vice president of the Tupper Lake Chamber of Commerce and a member
of Next Stop Tupper Lake, a group that supports expansion of a tourist train in
the Tri-Lakes.
“We
think it’s great for the economy in the North Country,” Tomberlin says.
Next Stop
Tupper Lake recently launched its “On Track to Saranac” initiative, which aims
to raise $350,000 to restore the railway. Tomberlin says momentum is building
for a side-by-side rail trail because the state Department of Transportation
has no intent to change the corridor’s Unit Management Plan.
“There’s
no intent or desire to rip up the rails,” Tomberlin said. “We can have both,”
he said. “We have a quote here in Tupper Lake that says, ‘Everyone that says it
can’t be done, please get out of the way of those of us who are actually doing
it.’”
Lee Keet
is a member of the steering committee for the Adirondack Recreational Trail
Advocates. The group wants to tear up the tracks between Lake Placid and Tupper
Lake in favor of a multi-use trail.
Keet
questions the economic council’s decision to include support for the railroad
in the strategic plan. He says members of the council have already shown a bias
toward the railroad:
“The
facts of the matter are that the rail, whether it has benefit to the local
communities or not, which is debatable, has far less benefit to the local
communities than a recreation trail, and that’s been documented,” he said,
referring to a Camoin Associates study released earlier this year. “I think
we’re just going to press ahead and build the factual case because I cannot
believe our politicians are actually going to allocate funds to something that
has less benefit to the communities that they serve than a better choice.”
Keet says
his group will challenge the North Country council’s decision to support the
rail corridor:
“We
will send an appeal to this REDC asking that if they’re going to make a
recommendation that flies in the face of established reports on benefits to the
communities, namely in this case the Camoin report, that they take steps to
either refute that report or to come up with reasons why they should be
choosing the second best alternative.”
Keet says
not every idea that comes out of the regional councils will get funded, and he
notes Gov. Andrew Cuomo will pick which projects receive state support.
He says
the strategic planning process should have been more open to the public.
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