Anytime an in-tact railroad that's OOS or abandoned becomes a trail, that's it - it will most likely
never be a railroad again. the Henry Hudson Trail in northern Monmouth county is a good example - it would be far better utilized if it was converted back into rail for MOM, but the wealthy constituents, better known as NIMBYs, along the trail do a damn good job making sure that never happens
Bracdude181 wrote: ↑Sun May 01, 2022 12:04 pm
NJT says the line must stay where it is. Why not put the trail next to the line? Like what Catskill Mountain Railroad does?
That's good. Why is NJT preserving this line though? Do they want to run trains back down to Cape May? Would probably be a lucrative business in the summers, but in the fall and winter, it would probably be pointless.
As for the Catskill Mountain Railroad and the rail trail next to that, that was
NOT their own doing. The Ulster county government did some shady maneuvers a few years ago to seize nearly 12 miles of old Ulster & Delaware RR, which stopped the CMRR from preserving said rail and using it for excursions. Almost all that rail was turned into a rail-trail very quickly, ending the possibility of that rail being preserved and being used for anything train-related. The Ulster County government also forced a rail-trail near the ROW of the CMRR.
A Facebook page by the name of "MetroTrails" has more information on it, the guy who owns it protested what the county government was doing and he was blocked by them on social media and barred from attending their meetings. Very shady stuff indeed.