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Adirondack railroad snubbed for state funding
By NATHAN BROWN, Enterprise Staff Writer
POSTED: May 1, 2008
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In December 2006, former Gov. George Pataki promised $5 million to make the 26 miles of track between the two villages passable, shortly before he left office and was replaced by Eliot Spitzer. Local officials and others involved in the efforts to renovate the train station and extend the railroad have been asking state officials when the funding will be made available ever since.
“We don’t know why the funding was not included,” Dan Mac Entee, spokesman for state Sen. Betty Little, R-Queensbury, said. “However, Sen. Little has called the (state) Department of Transportation and is working on setting up a meeting with them to discuss this and find out what can be done to strengthen the next application.”
Mac Entee said the DOT will be accepting applications for another round of grants next month. He said a project’s potential to encourage economic development is one of the factors the state takes into account when giving out grants.
“We think we have a strong case there,” he said.
Next Stop! Tupper Lake was founded three years ago to renovate the train station on Depot Street, with the eventual goal of extending the Adirondack Scenic Railroad to Tupper Lake. Currently, it runs one line between Utica and Thendara and another between Saranac Lake and Lake Placid, and their ultimate goal is to connect the two. Renovation of the train station is well under way, and supporters of the railroad say extending the line to Tupper Lake will bring increased tourism and economic development.
“We were told, ‘if we build it, they will come,’” said Sandra Strader, town administrator and a member of the board of directors of both the Adirondack Scenic Railroad and Next Stop! Tupper Lake. “But the funding isn’t there. We built!”
Dan McClelland, chairman of Next Stop! Tupper Lake, was out of town Wednesday and unavailable for comment. Strader said she spoke with him Tuesday and would be contacting Adirondack Scenic Railroad officials shortly to discuss the next application.
“We’ll try to work together and see how we can reapply,” Strader said, “because this is very important.”
Strader said the Adirondack Scenic Railroad has a construction contract with the DOT and would manage the funding and supervise the work.
County Legislator Paul Maroun, R-Tupper Lake, said refurbishing the entire railroad line from Lake Placid to Utica would cost roughly $16 or $17 million.
“If it were a perfect world, you’d get the $16 million and do the whole line,” he said. “But I guess we’ve got to try to get the $5 million to go from Placid to Tupper first.”
He said it would be an especially good idea now, with gas prices approaching $4 a gallon.
“The train didn’t used to look appealing, because it was slow,” he said. “But you have to drive to Albany to get a train, or Plattsburgh or Utica, and you might want to get on the train in Tupper and take it to Utica where you can get on Amtrak.”
None of the projects receiving funding right now are in the Tri-Lakes area. However, Amtrak is set to receive $5 million to subsidize routine operational costs on the line running between Schenectady and Rouses Point, and the town of Corinth is getting $1 million for repairs to the track between Corinth and Saratoga Springs.
(Editor's note: We accidentally deleted several comments readers made on this article; we regret the error.)
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View Comments: | 1-3 | Post a comment
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ScottThompson
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05-02-08 9:50 AM
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I could be wrong, but; Where as the Right of way was purchased by NYS not in part but in parcel and deemed it's use "The Adirondack Travel Corridor" and that it has been held and used for this purpose more than ten years (only three are necessary for the State) and that no claims of reversion have been filed or accepted in this matter, the R.O.W. is considered autonomous within APA's bounds, I doubt there would even be hearing. Also, personally, I believe if properly managed , the R.O.W. as a year round recreational trail would provide huge economic stimuluses with non motorized venues.
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TJDILLON
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05-01-08 10:40 PM
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Scotty...without the rails there will be no snowmobilers. Better learn to accept it. BTW the ruling you cited yesterday effects public lands, not private.
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ScottThompson
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05-01-08 9:45 PM
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It is rather unbelievable that people are still asking the taxpayers to fund this expensive hobby. Ask business people in Old Forge what the train has ment for the economy:zip, nada, nothing. As a matter of fact it does in some ways compete with private business that must survive on it's own. The winter trail brings snowmobilers who pay more than their own way, and as a Recreational Trail their could be other uses spring summer and fall and with out taxpayers paying millions for the privilage!!
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