A plan to extend the Catskill Mountain Railroad’s (CMRR) excursion train is on hold after its proposed expansion failed to gain support from a county legislative committee.
Corridor committee chair Jeff Collins suggested allowing CMRR to extend westward operations just far enough to Route 28A, where it could discharge passengers on a platform before reversing direction.
The railroad had a much more ambitious plan to expand 1.6 miles to a large station at Basin Road near the Ashokan Reservoir.
The committee voted 3-2 against CMRR’s 0.22-mile compromise plan. For now, though, no action will be final because not enough members were present to constitute a quorum. The committee will take up the matter at its May 8 meeting.
Collins thought the CMRR’s counterproposal made matters more complicated.
“They asked to go to mile 8.55, which was further. My concern about that was if they had gone that far, they would have gone into one of the areas that’s difficult for a track and trail,” Collins said. “My point was, let’s not make that decision now.”
The committee will likely recommend a policy for the use of the entire 1.6 miles of the undesignated section.
With bold plans for the future, CMRR had launched a public-relations campaign with a full-page ad rallying support for extending the train to a new West Hurley-Woodstock station at Basin Road, where passengers could bike or hike on the Ashokan rail-trail. CMRR plans bus runs between the station and Woodstock.
Those plans have hit a snag. The state Department of Transportation recently suspended a $667,000 grant awarded to CMRR after Ulster County officials raised alarm bells. To qualify for the grant, the railroad was required to demonstrate it has control over the property where the proposed station is located and that it has access to the property. CMRR does not qualify because it does not have access to the final 1.6 miles of track between the train’s endpoint at mile 8.33 and Basin Road, Collins said.
Some arguments against
Meanwhile, Hurley’s town board delayed action on a resolution in support of a trail-only option for the undesignated section. Joel Bluestein, owner of Dreamland Recording Studios, said extending the train would be catastrophic for him.
“I will tell you categorically, if the train goes through my back yard, it will put me out of business. You can’t have a train in a recording studio’s back yard,” he said. “I can tell you for sure, close my business down and there will be lawsuits, and the bad will in the community will be tremendous, because we’re beloved to this part of the community. We’ve made over 500 records.”
Woodstock Land Conservancy (WLC) president Patty Goodwin said a study showed a rail-and-trail option is not feasible for many reasons, including the fact the corridor runs through steep rock cuts and is next to protected state wetlands. “A much better option is the proposed compromise solution. As I understand it, it includes the extension of the Ashokan rail-trail, and it expands the railroad’s permit to bring tourist trains across Route 28A to a county-controlled property,” Goodwin said.
A tourist railroad does not benefit Hurley or Hurley residents, Goodwin argued, and the CMRR proposed railroad station at Route 28 and Zena Road would make an already dangerous intersection even worse, and it would violate Town of Woodstock zoning.”
WLC board chairman Kevin Smith referred Hurley officials to a 2024 Woodstock resolution in support of re-evaluating the undesignated section “and with due consideration of economic, fiscal, health, safety and environmental costs and benefits to the residents of the county, the best and highest use of this segment.” He also said the county had a mandate to preserve trail connectivity between Kingston and the Ashokan rail-trail.
“I’m probably one of the very few people in this room that have ridden Route 28 on their bicycle, including parallel to the undesignated section,” Smith said. “It is a dangerous roadway. I see people walking on it. I’m riding bicycles on it, some of them for recreation, some of them for tourism. A lot of them because that is their only means of transportation.”
Some arguments for
CMRR believes extending the train service to Basin Road combined with a rail-with-trail option is the best use of the rails.
“I think the real advantage is that we’re going to deliver passengers to a point where our tour buses can take them to local businesses,” CMRR president Ernie Hunt said. “I think that’s the key. You have an undeveloped commercial district in West Hurley. I think this bus and the potential for these people could really help you develop that commercial area better. Because, again, the issue is, they just take the train and they go up there, they go back. It doesn’t help. But if they get off and they spend money, you know, at the various restaurants, and potentially the new place at the West Hurley commercial district. That’s a benefit.”
CMRR engineer David Hilliard wanted to remind people of the 2015 compromise with the county.
“Let’s talk about the compromise,” said Hilliard. “Back in 2015, do you know what that compromise was? [Former county executive] Mike Hein basically had a gun to our head and said, ‘We’re going to reclaim your railroad, and you’re going to get to keep four-and-a-half miles, and we get all the rest.’ So that’s the first compromise we had to deal with. And I think we got to short end of the stick,” Hilliard said. “Let’s talk about the other compromise. There’s 1.7 miles of railroad left. We’re going to give you 500 feet, and the trail people are going to get 1.6 miles. How the hell is that fair? What kind of compromise is that? It just doesn’t make sense.”
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