To the editor:

As a long-ago advocate for the Adirondack Rail Trail, it is gratifying to read frequent reports in the Adirondack Daily Enterprise about how the trail is driving creation and growth of businesses and jobs across the Tri-Lakes region as predicted (e.g., “Lake Placid gears up for busy rail trail,” ADE, June 26, 2024). Impressively, this creation and growth of businesses and jobs is occurring although much of the Adirondack Rail Trail is still under construction and trail-side amenities are still under development.

Conversely, I could find no media reports of creation or growth of businesses or jobs related to operations of the Adirondack Railroad along the state-owned corridor between Thendara and Tupper Lake, although restoration of the rail infrastructure was completed years ago with tens of millions of taxpayer dollars. The number of Adirondack Railroad trains now operating there appears less than impressive (see https://adirondackrr.com/departure-schedules), and unlikely to lead to significant job creation.

Concerns were raised over many years regarding the viability of Adirondack Railroad operations between Thendara and Tupper Lake, whether those operations would benefit the region’s economy, and the initial and ongoing cost to taxpayers for those operations (e.g., “Gov. Cuomo, pull plug on rail rehab south of Tupper Lake,” ADE, June 7, 2021; “The Adirondack travel corridor: boondoggle or public benefit?” ADE, July 27, 2019; “Think of it as an investment,” ADE, Nov 21, 2017; “Questions for Gov. Cuomo about Remsen-Lake Placid Travel Corridor,” ADE, Sept. 29, 2015; “Spontaneous generation of a railroad — another discredited theory,” ADE, Sept. 9, 2013).

The corridor from Thendara to Tupper Lake is a valuable public asset, and the rail infrastructure obstructs many other potential uses, including snowmobiling, bicycling, and hiking. The Adirondack Railroad should be required to publicly demonstrate to local and statewide stakeholders that their operations along that corridor are viable, that their ridership is substantial, how much taxpayer support has been provided and will be needed to sustain operations, and that the Adirondack Railroad’s contributions to the regional economy are sufficient to justify their continued use of the corridor as well as ongoing state expenditures.

The benefits of the Adirondack Rail Trail are already clear, and its extension south from Tupper Lake represents a very attractive alternative to the wheezing, soot-belching monsters that visit the Tri-Lakes region rarely and provide little apparent benefit to the region’s economy.

David Banks

Rockville, Maryland and former resident of Lake Clear