Railroad line freight request rejected
Ulster County has rejected a request from the Catskill Mountain Railroad to extend its line so the railroad could begin hauling freight in the city of Kingston.
In a letter dated March 19, Public Works Commissioner Thomas Jackson denied the request from Ernest Hunt, president of the Catskill Mountain Railroad, who sought permission from the county to move freight along the county-owned former Ulster & Delaware Railroad corridor.
Hunt said the railroad had a letter of intent from Williams Lumber to use the railroad to move lumber through Kingston for distribution in Ulster, Greene and Dutchess counties. Had the county approved the use, Hunt said, the railroad would have pursued other potential freight customers as well.
At present, the Catskill Mountain Railroad has a lease with the county to operate a tourist train on a roughly 5-mile stretch of track between the Kingston Plaza in the city of Kingston and state Route 28A in the town of Ulster.
Hunt said the railroad needed the county to increase the length of track the railroad can operate on in order to connect to CSX track at milepost 2.9. Additionally, Hunt said, the local railroad would have to work with CSX to have a switch reinstalled where the county’s right-of-way meets the main line at Cornell Street.
“The tracks are in place right up to Smith Avenue,” Hunt said in a recent interview. “We’d have to put the switch back in at CSX; we’d have to work that out with them. (CSX) gave us a letter before they took it out, saying they would work with us to put it back in if freight came back.”
Ulster County Deputy Executive Ken Crannell said the additional stretch of track the railroad had sought to use has already been earmarked for a linear trail connecting Midtown with Kingston Plaza.
“Commissioner Jackson denied the request in accordance with the legislative policy that dictates that the section of rail corridor between Colonel Chandler Drive and Cornell Street is trail-only,” Crannell said.
In late 2015, the Ulster County Legislature adopted a policy stating that a recreational trail would be created along the county-owned corridor from Cornell Street to the east side of Kingston Plaza. A tourist train would run on a 4.7-mile stretch of track between the plaza and mile post 8.33 in Hurley, while the recreational trail would veer off the Ulster & Delaware corridor and onto the former O&W line before returning to the U&D corridor and running adjacent to the train for about the last two miles between Hurley Mountain Road and Stony Hollow, where train operations would terminate.
Ulster County Executive Michael Hein has said the trail between Midtown and Kingston Plaza, which he has called a “linear park,” would provide Midtown residents with easy access to the Hannaford supermarket at the plaza.
Hunt said in his letter to the county that the railroad believed there was a way to accommodate both the trail and the railroad.
In 2012, the county and the railroad became embroiled in a feud over the county’s tracks, largely along and near the Route 28 corridor, when Hein announced plans to convert most of the 38.6-mile right-of-way from Kingston to Highmount to a recreational trail. Under Hein’s initial plan, only the section in the Phoenicia area was to continue being used for train operations. Hein later proposed, and the county Legislature approved, a compromise under which train rides also would continue on the eastern segment.
Shortly after Hein announced his plan to covert the entire length of track to a trail, the county served the railroad with legal papers claiming the railroad was in violation of its lease and demanded the railroad immediately remedy the deficiencies. That action sparked a 2013 lawsuit by the railroad.
The two sides reached a settlement last April, ending the court fight.