Train to nowhere?

The Catskill Mountain Railroad (CMRR) may pull out of Ulster County if a proposed so-called compromise plan gains the approval of the full Ulster County Legislature.

CMRR president Ernie Hunt called the legislative compromise a train to nowhere. “It’s an absurdity. I mean, basically, Stony Hollow is nowhere,” he said. “Now, we go east of nowhere. Okay, so we’ll go west of nowhere. It’s still nowhere.”

Hunt believes the compromise concept really came from committee member Kathy Nolan, whom he said has had an ax to grind with the railroad for at least 20 years. He contended the committee was stacked with people who had a beef with the railroad — making the recommendation a foregone conclusion.

The county’s Ulster and Delaware Corridor advisory committee voted 5-2 May 8 to extend CMRR’s rail operation only far enough to cross Route 28A and convert the rest of the 1.8-mile undesignated section to a trail.

There were three pieces to the recommendation that the committee was making to the legislature, said committee chair Jeff Collins, who represents Woodstock and West Hurley.
Part one was to extend CMRR’s permit to cross Route 28A at a sufficient length to be able to clear the road of the train. Part two was to make from the point where the train would end to the current eastern end of the Ashokan rail-trail a trail. The final part was to make the small CMRR extension across Route 28A a rail-trail with a visitors’ center with restrooms and parking.

The recommendation will go to the Housing and Transportation Committee, which Collins also chairs, and then to the full legislature.

Friends of the Catskill Mountain Rail Trail, a coalition of business owners and individuals, lauded the advisory committee recommendation.

Ernie Hunt did not.

“The trail side hasn’t changed in ten years, just the same basic goal that we’re something that should be gotten rid of,” Hunt said bitterly. “This committee had no independent consultant, so it really kind of boiled down to a he-said-she-said committee. And it’s really impossible to make an objective determination. You basically end up in a political decision instead of a real objective analysis.”

Hunt said he hadn’t been able to speak at the last several meetings, including the May 8 vote. “They didn’t even let us react to it,” he said. “They just closed the meeting, goodbye. How could that be considered appropriate? It’s just such a slap in the face that we’re able to issue a recommendation like this, vote on it, and not even let us say anything about it. Somebody said it’s like having dinner with a cannibal, and basically you’re the dinner.”

Hunt believes there’s still a chance to fight. He contended the railroad had a number of allies in the legislature.

The CMRR has been trying to convince county lawmakers a train alongside a trail is a viable solution, an engineering problem that can be solved. It has proposed extending the train all the way through the 1.8-mile undesignated section to a new station on Basin Road. Riders could take the train from Kingston to Basin Road and rent bicycles to use the Ashokan rail trail. A proposal from the railroad suggests a trolley bus to enjoy a day of shopping or dining in Woodstock.

Hunt said he was getting tired of being in limbo.

“So either the county should support us and our plans or if they’re not going to support us. Let us know. We talked to Orange and Dutchess counties ten years ago. We were beginning to formulate a plan to move to one of those counties when we were picked for the RFP to continue, so we decided to stay in Ulster County. But we can go back and start looking elsewhere.”

Hunt saw the county offer as an insult. “For them to even offer that was so absurd. And Jeff [Collins] never talked to me before he made this.”