Warren County, N.Y., which owns 40 miles of the Class II track, issued the request for proposals to find an operator “interested in providing rolling stock and freight service with or without excursion trains” over the portion owned by the county. The request includes an additional 16 miles owned by the Town of Corinth, which run from the southern end of the county’s tracks to the connection with the Canadian Pacific line that runs into Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
Saratoga & North Creek, which is owned by Iowa Pacific, last operated passenger trains on the route in 2018. It stopped service, claiming it could not generate profits from passenger operations. An attempt to store freight cars for other railroads on the tracks it owns north of Warren County’s tracks ran into strong resistance from state and local officials, and the cars were eventually removed. Those tracks are not part of the request for proposals.
One company that expressed interest is Denver-based OmniTRAX, which operates numerous railroads throughout the country. OmniTrax representative Ron Margulis says his company is negotiating with Iowa Pacific to purchase its portion of the line.
As OmniTRAX sees it, “it doesn’t make sense for anybody to operate the line unless all three pieces come together,” referring to the two municipally owned portions.
The interest in the privately owned portion, which runs from North Creek to Newcomb, N.Y., stems from the abandoned Tahawus titanium mine, which sits at the end of the line. There are mine tailings that have a market elsewhere, Margulis says. OmniTRAX is talking with manufacturers that can process the tailings, to determine the feasibility of establishing regular delivery service.
Margulis says it’s too early to say, if the deal goes through, whether OmniTRAX would re-establish passenger service on the line.
So far, the county has seen interest in its request, but has not received proposals, says county Purchasing Agent Julie Butler. Butler says it’s not unusual for those submitting proposals to wait until closer to the deadline. The deadline is April 18.
Carl, computer programmers mostly get paid for addressing real world issues. Sounds like you need to spend some time in the real world and stop relying on simulations.
John, I know some computer programmers, including some in my family. Most are very good at what they do, but not much related to the real world. They seem susceptible to superstition, particularly from environmentalists. Most spend their free time playing computer games.
Re: “high grade ore under 1.5 million tons of tailings” I guess you’re only looking at one ore body. The whole area has plenty of potential, but hasn’t been very well explored.
For the greenies, there is no such thing as coexist. They are intolerant of any compromise. They’ll find sympathetic judges that will side with them, keep changing the rules, find another grievance, and eventually the business gives up spending hard earned capital for the project. In my area it took 20 years to finally get a main highway approved because greenies kept finding ant holes or some other reason to stop the project. Meanwhile fatalities were happening, but the greenies didn’t care about that, nor the extra ten’s of millions in additional costs to taxpayers. Working side-by-side in their tantrum filled world doesn’t exist.
New York state should consider allowing the Tahawas mines to reopen. The ore is high grade iron ore with significant titanium and vanadium credits. Vanadium is becoming more valuable as a component in storage batteries. I visited the area last October and there are lots of mining opportunities in and around the Adirondacks. Yes, I have an axe to grind. I’m an economic geologist who rejects the idea that the environment takes precedence over people.
@ W Cook: While on the surface, the OMNITrax situation on the Churchill line in Canada made them look bad, even a economic geologist could figure out that the cost to repair the line to standard exceeded by a large margin what the service could return in revenue. When the Govt of Canada snubbed their nose at them for asking to make up the difference, they exercised their contractual rights. OMNITrax actually offered to get partial service restored within 6 months after the cold season had passed and increase the service after a full repair season took place. But they needed financial help to do so. Canada refused.
So after OMNITrax agreed to leave, Canada, the provincial government and tribal nations suddenly found plenty of dough to fix everything and contracted it to a concessionaire to run everything including the port, without having to pay any of it back.
So while OMNITrax took lumps for exiting their contract, it was really the behind the scenes efforts of the provincial government that should be nicked because they really didn’t want OMNITrax involved anymore and they used the situation to force them out.
Not said in the open was that there was a Lec Megantic mentality, meaning no more allowing Canadian rails (even marginal ones) be run by low cost US based railroads.
So I don’t think OMNITrax would be a subpar operator as long as they have a consistent revenue stream from the former mine. One unit train of tailings would remove 30-40 heavy trucks off the local roads. I think that is a pretty good trade-off in any environmental book.
Some of my finest working memories occurred in that one stall engine house in North Creek. Hopefully the good times can continue.
Re: I’m an economic geologist who rejects the idea that the environment takes precedence over people.
I’m a computer programmer who reject the idea that economic geologist can know what should take precedence over people.
(I think there are more jokes about economists than computer programmers too. The ones I like best start with: An economics pulls an assumption out of his…)
I hope all works out well!
Carl Welch, I’m afraid your axe will get very dull until both sides realize they can coexist. Neither environmentalists or mining interests should have preference, instead they need to work side by side. Is it more costly to mine while also protecting the environment, yes, but everything comes with a price, and if the mining companies are unwilling to pay the price, then mine they should be allowed to do…it’s that simple.
The high grade ore that could be mined is under the 1.5 million tons of tailings. If you move it you might as well ship it to a buyer. Don’t forget that OmniTRAX is the company that refused to fix the washout on their long track to Churchill, in Canada on the Hudson Bay which isolated the entire town and closed the port. Finally the local tribes took over the line and had it opened in quick order before it froze up again. Hope they get some iron clad agreement to protect everyone and get the line open for freight traffic and excursion trains.