Judge refuses to halt removal of RR tracks
A state Supreme Court justice has rejected a request to halt Ulster County’s removal of railroad tracks along the north rim of the Ashokan Reservoir.
The order was sought by the U&D Railway Revitalization Corp. in its ongoing effort to stop the conversion of a portion of the 38mile former Ulster & Delaware Railroad corridor into a recreational trail.
The group, which also has petitioned the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to determine whether the county has the legal right to remove the tracks, was joined by three nearby landowners in the lawsuit filed in state Supreme Court.
The suit asks the court to prohibit the county from taking up any more railroad tracks along the reservoir pending the federal board’s determination and to declare invalid any county ownership claims to any of the tracks, ties, signals equipment or supporting structures that once were the property of the railroad.
Taylor-Montgomery, the firm the county hired to remove the tracks, began the process in January.
Larry Roth, a spokesman for the U&D Railway Revitalization Corp., said the group was “disappointed” by Justice Richard Cahill’s Friday decision, which he said he believed was the result of misrepresentations by the county about the amount of work that has been done.
“The facts are not as they stated,” he said.
Roth said the county represented to the judge that removal work along the 11.5-mile stretch of the Ashokan Reservoir is about 95 percent complete, but he said aerial photos obtained by the group show that to not be true.
County Attorney Bea Havranek said Monday that the county’s comments before the court were correct.
“I’m not going to get into a public discussion,” she said, citing the ongoing litigation. “Whatever was said before the court was totally accurate.”
In January, the nonprofit U&D Railway Revitalization Corp. filed a petition with the Surface Transportation Board, questioning whether the county had the legal authority to remove the tracks. The group claims the county failed to have the railroad line deemed abandoned by the federal government and therefore cannot remove any tracks along the former Ulster & Delaware corridor. The group says the work being done to remove the tracks along the Ashokan violates not only the National Trails System Act but also the county’s agreement with the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, which owns and operates the reservoir.
Last week, the county filed an 816-page response that included a letter dated April 1, 1977, from the state Department of Transportation that states, in part, “the approval for the abandonment has been made” for the Catskill Mountain branch of the U&D rail line.
In its filing, the county said the line hadn’t been used for regular interstate passenger service since 1956 and that regular freight service ended in 1976, a year before the county claims the line was abandoned and three years before the county purchased the corridor.
Further supporting its claim that the line was abandoned, the county stated in the court papers that in 2016, the state Department of Transportation acquired through eminent domain a portion of the line to enable the state to reconstruct and raise a bridge along state Route 28.
On Friday, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection also filed a reply to the U&D Railway Revitalization Corp. petition, stating the city “agrees with Ulster County’s conclusion that the available facts indicate that the line has long since been abandoned.”
Havrenek, the county’s attorney, declined to comment on the county’s filing.
Roth, speaking for the U&D Railway Revitalization Corp., said the county in its filing “is saying a number of things that aren’t necessarily true.
“Basically, they threw everything at us to try to bury us,” he said.
After four years of debate and discussion over the future of the former rail corridor, the Ulster County Legislature in late 2016 adopted a policy that provides for tourist-related rail opportunities on two sections of the right-ofway and for a recreational trail along the north rim of the reservoir.
In response to objections from rail supporters, County Executive Michael Hein negotiated a deal with the city Department of Environmental Protection that he said preserves the railroad right-of-way at the reservoir while allowing for the construction of the recreational trail.
The Department of Environmental Protection has stated, however, that it will allow either train access or a trail along the reservoir, but not both.