KINGSTON, N.Y. — Two pieces of maintenance-of-way equipment for the Catskill Mountain Railroad were damaged in a June 19 incident, the railroad reported this week — an incident the tourist line, embroiled in a disagreement over rail vs. trail use of county-owned right-of-way, is characterizing as “sabotage.”
Damage to the equipment includes cutting of electrical wiring and fuel lines, the puncture of fuel and oil filters, and the severing of engine oil lines. The railroad has reported the incident to the New York State Police and the Transportation Security Administration.
The Daily Freeman newspaper reports that state police have documented the incident but the case has been closed because the railroad “did not wish to pursue charges.” The Transportation Security Adminstration is investigating the incident, a TSA official told the newspaper.
The railroad and trail advocates are at odds over a 1.8-mile stretch of the right-of-way of the former Ulster & Delaware Railroad, purchased by the county in 1979. The news site Hudson Valley One reported earlier this year that development of a trail on that stretch would prevent the railroad from expanding into that area and building a new station, a project for which the railroad received state funding in 2024 [see “Catskill Mountain to use New York grants …,” Trains News Wire, March 29, 2024]. In that report, railroad president Ernie Hunt expressed concers that trail proponents would like to revive a 2014 proposal to eliminate the railroad entirely. Trail supports say that is not the case, but that portions of the route are too constrained to permit both a rail line and a trail, which Hunt supports and says has been shown in a study to be feasible.
The railroad, in a press release on the equipment damage, says it represent “criminal actions” resulting from the antagonism between the two sides, and calls for the Ulster County Legislation to adopt “rail with trail” as its official policy to settle the matter.
Ulstor County Sheriff’s Captain Joseph Scuitto told the Daily Freeman that police are investigating an emailed death threat against the Woodstock Land Conservancy, which supports a trail; the newspaper said the railroad’s allegation that it has received death threats have not been confirmed.
— Updated at 9:35 a.m. CT with additional information.
There’s no problems with trails and rails together, it’s the idiots that walk the trails that are the problems…you don’t need a thousand feet between the two for it to work. There are tons of trails right next to rail lines in the U.K. only separated by a fence, no reason we can’t do the same here…just put a warning sign that tells the pedestrians they are responsible for their own safety(it can be done so that it is legally binding).
This is the Ulster & Delaware line, later New York Central, that once extended from Kingston to Oneonta. As a kid reporter, I covered the beginning of this saga in 1970. This should have been a slam-dunk preservation/attraction/economic driver-it has a NYS Thruway exit practically on the doorstep and is only about 100 miles north of the City, in a spectacularly scenic tourist haven. Complicated by an unsuccessful “Steamtown” relocation attempt (it ended up in Scranton), local politics (the Kingston mayor parked heavy equipment on the right of way), a New York City reservoir (anything connected to NYC is fraught), hurricane damage (a downed bridge severed the line and caused washouts), the rails-to-trails controversy (which seems to have turned into an all or nothing proposition), not much has happened in the 55 years since my reporting. So sad-it still has all that potential.