To the editor:
I have read with interest the last two issues of the Adirondack Explorer, each having articles on the Adirondack Scenic Railroad. The first article detailed the different possible uses for the corridor and the plans for expansion of rail service to Tupper Lake under the leadership of Next Stop! Tupper Lake, an advocacy group promoting the ASR.
The business plan is to take passengers out on four- to five-hour round-trips and to wine them and dine them. It made me wonder why any Tupper Lake business would be supporting a plan to take their customers from them. If the train riders are fed on the train, what business is this going benefit? The ASR's own economic-impact study states that it does not create an overnight stay. So while the businesses of Tupper are being sold on the idea that "if you build it, they will come," the truth is, if they come, the train will take them somewhere else and take their money, and they may stop to use your bathroom. Of course, in Lake Placid and Saranac Lake, the lesson is, they built it and no one comes.
The second article was a debate piece on removing the tracks vs. keeping the tracks. Dan McClelland took the ASR side. It was quite telling when his first paragraph agreed that Tupper Lake would receive more business if the tracks were removed for snowmobiling. Since winter is the slowest business season, this would be a major help. He went on to say that, even during summer months, perhaps the corridor would receive more tourists if used as a trail. His only reason for keeping the train was nostalgia since it's the last railroad in the Adirondacks. Obviously not understanding why, it's the last one! Like the mayor of Rockmart, Ga. said, "We had more tourists the first 12 months of the trail than we had in the last 30 years of the train," speaking of the Silver Comet rail trail.
Since these two articles have been written, we are finding out how much financial trouble New York state is in: the closing of prisons and the VICs, where they have 10 times the number of visitors as the ASR has riders between SL and LP. The fact that without the NYSDOT paying the ASR for maintenance on the corridor, they wouldn't even be able to turn on a light bulb, should give everyone pause. Do we really want another state-sponsored entity that will fail as soon as the taxpayer subsidies are removed? Then we will hear, "Can't take the tracks out now; we spent too much money on them." So the area will lose the economic potential for another 30 years.
The days of wasteful spending are over. Do we really want to promote a train that has been a known economic failure for more than 60 years? It's time Tupper, Saranac and Lake Placid join together to work for a better economic future for the entire region. This recreational path would be a great start to connect our communities and provide the impetus to create jobs and a more stable economy that does not have to rely on state taxpayers footing the bill.
Jim McCulley
Lake Placid