New deal aims to ease concerns of rail backers
Ulster County Executive Michael Hein has struck a deal that he says will forever protect railroad rights along the Ashokan Reservoir while allowing the county to move forward with plans to create a pedestrian trail in the railroad corridor.
Hein said the permanent property easement guarantees the county’s “irrevocable right” to the corridor for either trail or rail uses and should ease the concerns of those who worry that if the tracks along the Ashokan Reservoir are torn up to make way for a trail, the right to run trains through the area would be lost forever.
He said the Ashokan Trail Easement “explicitly and unequivocally” protects the county railroad easement “forever.”
The agreement, which still must be approved by the county Legislature, also gives Ulster County the right in perpetuity to operate a recreational trail through the New York City reservoir land. A prior agreement gave the city’s Department of Environmental Protection, which operates the reservoir, the right to shut down the trail with 30 days’ notice.
“We were able to negotiate an agreement that is, in many ways, better than we could have imagined,” Hein said Thursday. “This agreement will protect the underlying railroad rights along the 11.6 miles of the Ashokan Reservoir in perpetuity while not compromising the segmented trail plan ... passed by the Legislature in 2015.”
In 2013, Ulster County struck a deal with the Department of Environmental Protection to allow the county to develop a trail along the countyowned railroad right-of-way adjacent to the reservoir. The agency said it would not allow both an active train and a recreational trail through the land.
The idea of converting the former rail line into a recreational trail spurred a yearslong battle between Hein and the Catskill Mountain Railroad — a for-profit, private group that, until May 2016, held a lease on the tracks — and among members of the county community who split over whether the corridor should be converted to a trail or maintained for a tourist train operation.
The dispute, which often became heated, largely ended in late 2015 when the Ulster County Legislature adopted a policy that provides for both tourist train opportunities and a recreational trail that will enable hikers, bikers and others to enjoy the scenic vistas of the Ashokan Reservoir, though concerns about the potential loss of rail rights remained.
Train supporters were concerned that although the county holds an easement that allows trains to travel through the reservoir, once the tracks were removed, the right to run trains through those lands in the future would be lost.
Catskill Mountain Railroad President Ernie Hunt said Thursday that the newly announced deal seems “good for the long term in terms of being able to put the tracks back in someday.”