It's to bad that such poor decisions were made. I'm sure that downtown Millwood and Yorktown Heights would look alot different today had the railroad stayed. It's interesting, but on the other side of the river in Rockland County, towns that had service, i.e. Valley Cottage, Orangeberg, etc. have the same effect, no downtown, just a few strip malls here and there.
The other lines that should have never been abandoned are the LIRR Rockaway Beach and the Boston & Westchester.
The LIRR should have gone to the airport since the airport opened from MANHATTAN and the Boston & Westchester would have served an underserved secton of Westchester and the Bronx and maybe, just maybe been permitted access to Penn. By now, all of the arguments about "track space" would be moot because the right palms would have been properly greased.
Wouldn't it be nice to go back in time and tell the people responsible for those decisions "Wooa, I wouldn't do that".