NYS&W Abandonments

RichM wrote:The pre-abandonment announcement was in Monday's Bergen Record, last page of the classifieds under Public Notice. Among other items, it identifies various points, and it calls out the entire Lodi Branch, from Hackensack to Garibaldi Avenue.

As for the construction, as I said earlier, I believe the work was done as the cost of refurbishment after the storm drainage system was upgraded.

Now, let the politics begin!

So if it is abandoned, where do the cars get repaired? I remember someon saying that the plastics company in Passaic junction wants all the track space it can get, and thats why this was rebuilt.

Good question, but there is still a lot of real estate along the right-of-way available. And the abandonment procedure is pretty long, lots can happen. I was just thinking that it may even be possible that room will open up in Little Ferry if Maersk shifts some of the transatlantic traffic to the new terminal they're building in Virginia, everything converges around 2008, even the NS raising heights from Columbus and Cincinnati east... so my guess is we'll wait and see!

RichM wrote:Good question, but there is still a lot of real estate along the right-of-way available. And the abandonment procedure is pretty long, lots can happen. I was just thinking that it may even be possible that room will open up in Little Ferry if Maersk shifts some of the transatlantic traffic to the new terminal they're building in Virginia, everything converges around 2008, even the NS raising heights from Columbus and Cincinnati east... so my guess is we'll wait and see!

What do you mean room will open up? No more intermodel service out of little ferry?

No, just rebalancing. The port is much deeper in Hampton Roads, and Maersk will have a lot more space in the new facility than what is available in Newark/Elizabeth. So it may be that they will employ larger ships that draw more water on some transatlantic service, and make Norfolk/Portsmouth the principal port. But I'm just speculating... no rumor involved!

As far as Lodi is concerned, the repair facility I assume is one of convenience, not revenue generation. It still means the railroad is responsible for maintaining the 17 crossing, and as we've all noticed, no work has been done to improve the tracks above 17.

I think this is all part of the potential abandonment decision... a lot of street trackage and crossing maintenance in many of these locations, and very little revenue traffic.

Does anyone know if NYSW is going to repair the essex street crossing now that the work is finally beeing finished on the widening project?

Also my g/f emailed me this article about the utica branch.

http://www.evesun.com/chenango-county/n ... 20/570.htm

Wow; wouldn't it be great if they could turn the Utica branch into a primitive rail-trail? All that's needed is to leave the bridge steel and timbers in place when they pull up the tracks. Deck over the timbers with pressure-treated wood laid on the diagonal, and hand-rails. If they sign a conservation agreement for exclusive recreational use, they won't have to pay any taxes and .... will still own a contiguous railbed which could be relaid whenever reasonable.

Wow; wouldn't it be great if they could turn the Utica branch into a primitive rail-trail? All that's needed is to leave the bridge steel and timbers in place when they pull up the tracks. Deck over the timbers with pressure-treated wood laid on the diagonal, and hand-rails. If they sign a conservation agreement for exclusive recreational use, they won't have to pay any taxes and .... will still own a contiguous railbed which could be relaid whenever reasonable.

No, it would not be great. Once the rails are removed the possibility of reinstallation of rail is nil. ZIP. ZERO. Just to site one problem with that theory: The rail could not just be relaid. The entire line would have to be reengineered to modern standards and practices. Basically starting fresh, including fighting the NIMBYS. Pulling the rail means fixing all the grandfathered problems associated with the line. Government doesn't have the backbone required to pull off reactivation. Plain and simple.

If the line has any hope of being saved as a railroad, It must remain intact and be repaired soon. The people in communities along the line must step in and stop the dismemberment if the ROW. Unfortunately, timing could not have been worse. A lot of folks are peed off because of the powerline proposal and would not lift a finger to help NYSW. They don't differenciate between the line itself and the company that runs trains over it. That is what will doom this line. The county agencys need to get the their right of ways back. If that doesn't include NYSW, OK.

Should get a local group together and repair it like i've seen on a nysw related website. Im sure there would be enough support to do it.


As for the lodi branch, if you file for abandonment, can you still use it? I mean the lodi branch has 1 customer and thats it. And as of late isn't really getting much rail traffic. So could nysw still use the line for there car repairs?

GOLDEN-ARM wrote:Abandonment allows the railroad to remove trackage from the books, and from the tax registers, as well.....

Removed from some special railroad in service tax? Even after abandonment the railroad still owns the land and would have to continue to pay the real estate tax. Abandonment refers to cessation of common carrier service, not ownership of the land.

Most of the Utica line is owned by the counties it passes through, and is not on tax rolls per-se.

Another operator only need step up to take it over and repair it.

I think the abandonment ploy is another attempt to get money out of the state, as is the power line deal - either the state/counties pay the RR money or give them more breaks, or the power line company pays them to run the lines.

They lost a $115K a year PILOT in Oneda County over the power line deal, already, so I would wait and see just what happens next.

The Utica Observer Dispatch has published several articles regarding the ownership of the NYS&W ROW, and most of them contradict themselves.

The first article published back about July or August, stated that the OCIDC owned the ROW / land on which the NYS&W is located. Reading into it, the NYS&W had to maintain the property and service to it's customers in order to receive it's tax exemption.

One of the later articles states that the property was in the name of OCIDC for the purpose of tax breaks only & that NYS&W truly owns the ROW / land.

I really don't know which version of the stories is true, but if I were a betting man, I'd pick #2.