The arrival of the Adirondack Scenic Railroad train in late May has brought advocates with strong feelings for and against it to the forefront once again.
In Tupper Lake, where there has been strong support for the return of rail service, people had a small celebration when the train passed through on May 22. Thirty miles away, Lake Placid Snowmobile President Jim McCulley greeted the train with a letter to the editor questioning whether the train was a disaster waiting to happen because of the old tracks it must ride on to get to Lake Placid from Utica.
The train arrived safely and without incident.
The train debate has gone on for years but started getting louder last summer after the North Elba Town Board failed to give support to the Adirondack Railway Preservation Society to extend rail service. Currently, the railroad only operates between Utica and Old Forge and between Saranac Lake and Lake Placid. The group had approached the town board, stating that it is looking for as much as $13 million in state and federal funding to restore end-to-end operations between Utica and Lake Placid, which railroad officials said would bring more tourists to the area.
"It's fair to say there are mixed feelings about the railroad in Lake Placid," town Supervisor Roby Politi said at the time. "I think the people feel it's a nice attraction, but a financial boondoggle."
This winter, the Adirondack Explorer news magazine featured debating columnists and wrote an editorial suggesting that the corridor between Lake Placid and Tupper Lake would be great for a bicycle trail. Those pieces prompted a bevy of letters on both sides, though most were in favor of the bike path. Vinny McClelland, owner of the Mountaineer gear store in Keene Valley, wrote that a bike path would provide a safe alternative to some of the roads. David Tomberlin of Tupper Lake wrote about Tupper Lakers' big investment into the train, how they have built a new station just for it.
"A large group of residents recently raised thousands of dollars, and volunteers contributed hundreds of hours of time, to rebuild the Tupper Lake train station in anticipation of rail service being re-established between the Tri-Lake villages," Tomberlin wrote.
Regardless of how much money has already been invested in the rail system and train station, others believe if it were a recreational path for bicycles and snowmobiles, it would bring in more money to the local economy than the train currently does.
McCulley would like to see the tracks taken up so that the snowmobilers could use the corridor without fear of damaging their snowmobiles. No tracks would also allow snowmobilers to have a longer season, since it is difficult and dangerous to ride when the snow doesn't cover the rails.
On the flip side, many Tupper Lakers also believe the railroad will one day bring more tourist and industry dollars to their community if regular passenger and freight rail service is established there.
"Economically, it would be very good for Tupper Lake," said Tupper Lake town Administrator Sandy Strader. "I don't know if you've ever ridden anything between Saranac Lake and Tupper Lake on the high rail. The vistas are great. It's one of the best places you could see."
But McCulley sees things differently. He thinks the railroad is a waste of state money because he says it doesn't bring tourism to the region. He says it only makes money off people who are already here for other reasons.
"It never made money, and a lot of people don't realize, when the train came to town, I was pro-train," McCulley said. "Once I saw what the effects of that as a recreational trail would be, it became obvious to me that all we were doing was wasting taxpayer dollars."
McCulley said one of the reasons the train is hard to get rid of is that politicians often see it as a way to gain public support.
"I think politicians like the railroad from the point of view that they can show they've done something, even though it doesn't bring any business," McCulley said. "It has not created a job. Politicians look at it as, 'Oh, there's something tangible that I've wasted your taxpayer dollars on.'"
McCulley draws criticism from railroad officials who say he and other snowmobilers are directly benefitting from their work done to maintain the railroad corridor.
"There is sort of a funny irony in all this because we're the ones who do the work to keep it up to standards," said Bill Branson, president of the Adirondack Railway Preservation Society Board of Directors. "The snowmobiles I think it's a great use. I mean, I own snowmobiles myself, but they benefit from the work we do, and what little taxpayer work goes into this not to us, but into those tracks benefits them every little bit as much as it does us."
The train debate was also the subject of a public comment during the Adirondack Caucus in Tupper Lake, hosted by Janet Duprey, R-Peru, two weeks ago. Tupper Laker Jim Frenette Sr. noted that it's been 45 years since the last regular passenger train came through Tupper Lake, 20 years since the train has been traveling from Thendara along the Moose River, 10 years since the train started running between Saranac Lake and Lake Placid when it was promised that Tupper Lake would be the next stop and five years since the area was promised $5 million to rehabilitate the corridor between Tupper Lake and Saranac Lake.
"Now, if the state, through the (Department of Transportation), is not willing or not able to bring the railroad up to the required standards for passenger operation after all those years, then we have to ask, 'What should be its highest and best use?'" Frenette said.
Both sides of the debate share the belief that their plan would be the best way to bring an economic boost to the region, he said.
"A lot of opinions either way, but whatever and however, something needs to be done," Frenette said. "A process, leading to a decision, has been avoided for too many years. Let's get a better forum for decision making than the 'Talk of the Town' radio program in Saranac Lake, or the e-mails and letters to the editor. ... There's a wealth of opinions out there, and what we need is hard facts and to make a hard decision. We talk of economic improvement, and we let this golden opportunity lie in the hands and teeth of the beavers. Forty years is a long time to wait. Forty years is lost time to capitalize on this tremendous asset. I just hope that no one will have the opportunity to stand here one day and to say, 'Now 50 years ago, we had the chance, and it's gone.'"
Enterprise Staff Writer Jessica Collier contributed to this report.
Contact Mike Lynch at 891-2600 ext. 28 or mlynch@adirondackdailyenterprise.
