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People have a right to ride a train in corridor

To the editor:

To the people in the state of New York:

I am a train advocate.

I disagree with the Adirondack Park Agency addition of a rail trail to the travel cooridor definition and replacing the tracks with a trail I cannot use. My rights are:

That I have the right to use the cooridor from one end to the other, as in any other travel cooridor. The train rails provide me with that. The rail trail does not. Who am I? I am an old fellow or lady who likes to get out in the woods but can’t walk. I was born with a disease, and so I am crippled. I was born with a mental handicap, and I am crippled. I now suffer with a disease that prevents me from walking very far. I am a very young child, and I am limited. My mother is pregnant and cannot walk or ride a bike or snowmobile. I was a coal miner and cannot breathe without oxygen. Maybe I can make it 20 feet on a trail. I am blind. I can’t see that trail, but I can feel and hear that train below and the great people around me. I am from out of town with my wife. We have not been on a train in years. We want to take a short train ride for the afternoon.

These people are not made up. They are everyday people we see on the Adirondack Scenic Railway everyday. If the rail trail is considered part of the travel cooridor, then the state has to provide a way for these people to use every part of it. All 34 miles. I have my rights.

Robert DeMaro

Mesa, Arizona, and Lyon Mountain

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