SARANAC LAKE — W/SIDEBAR
A community-action group has launched an economic study of the railroad corridor through the Tri-Lakes.
Based in Saranac Lake, AdkAction.org is using funds from private donors to take an objective, unbiased look at potential uses for the railroad bed, the existing tracks and the long path they cut through Adirondack forest.
UNUSED RESOURCE
AdkAction.org Chairman David Wolff said they are collecting and documenting facts.
"Our view is you've got a great resource laying fallow between Tupper Lake and Saranac Lake. Let's get this study going. Let's understand the facts. And using the facts, present them to the public, and then let the public decide.
"AdkAction.org will be the contracting agent, but we are not the funding source, and we will not solicit funds," Wolff explained.
The study is expected to cost just under $50,000.
SOME SECTIONS IN USE
Designated a Travel Corridor in the State Land Master Plan, the railroad line is one of just two in the Adirondack Park.
The stretch from Lake Placid to Tupper Lake is a 34-mile segment of the total 119-mile corridor winding to Remsen, near Utica.
Several sections of the route are in various stages of operation.
At either end, the tracks are used by trains on the Adirondack Scenic Railroad as a tourist attraction in summer and fall.
The bulk of the central stretch from Thendara to Saranac Lake is dormant, used only for transporting equipment.
FUNDING UNUSED
Some groups, including North Elba town officials, have suggested the train tracks be removed, believing a recreation path would draw more use than the Adirondack Scenic Railroad.
But former Gov. George Pataki targeted $5 million some five years ago to extend rail upgrades from Saranac Lake to Tupper Lake so the railroad could connect all three villages.
That project was not put in motion, though a community-based effort in Tupper Lake subsequently raised more than $400,000 and rebuilt the Train Depot at Tupper Junction, anticipating theirs would be the next train station on the track.
CATALYST
With different ends of the line focused on different ideas, economic review may provide some common ground.
"We view ourselves as a catalyst," Wolff said of AdkAction.org's role in research.
"We're getting this whole thing started with a view to complete an unbiased and objective study."
Economic analysis will look at the cost to upgrade the railroad track between Saranac Lake and Tupper Lake.
"What are the economic benefits of maintaining the railroad lines?" Wolff said. "Then we will portion those potential benefits between the communities."
MULTI-USE TRAIL
The study will then examine cost to remove the rails and instead build a multi-use trail, anticipating economic impact.
"Then we'll put all that on the table and do a comparison," Wolff said.
Research will look to either a railway or a multi-use trail, he said.
"Not both. The thinking is that was the original idea (to build a multi-use trail) eight years ago, and that stalled," Wolff said.
Camoin Associates has been retained to do the work, which should be completed in the first quarter of 2011, Wolff said.
PUBLIC INPUT
Once the data is in, AdkAction.org will host public hearings in Lake Placid, Saranac Lake and Tupper Lake to present facts, recommendations and conclusions, Wolff said.
"Whatever the public supports we will support, but we want it based on facts: unbiased, objective facts."
E-mail Kim Smith Dedam at: kdedam@pressrepublican.com
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