No hope for Maybrook line ?

[blue streak 1]

http://www.rtands.com/index.php/passenger/mta-seeking-ideas-for-east-west-line-in-dutchess-and-putnam-counties.html?channel=

 

[MidlandMike]

This is more worrisome than hopeful to me.  It is listed in MTA's Real Estate page.  It sounds like MTA can't forsee a useful purpose for the line.  There are 3 tourist lines in the state where locals are demanding the tracks be torn up for trails.  Abandoned parts of the original Maybrook line near the Poughkeepsie bridge have already been converted to trails.

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

That may be part of the problem.  MTA is stuck with a nowhere-to-nowhere remnant of the Maybrook line and may well be looking for an operator who sees any potential freight traffic on that line before actually abandoning the line.

[aegrotatio]

The "Walkway Over The Hudson" officially killed any viability of nearly all segments of the Maybrook line being used for anything but trails. There are too many freight alternatives in this area that have been successful for 40 years. West of the Walkway is dead. Eastward, Metro-North's Beacon line has been studied several times. Until several washouts in recent years the line was used for deadhead moves but I think they've lost interest. It will become a trail.

[JC from Ct.]

Way too many gaps in the area.  Is the Danbury-Derby line still active?  Not sure that any freight to speak of moves by rail in southwestern Ct. 

[CandOforprogress2]

Was the Maybrook Line part of the Hoosictonic Railroad at one time and still is?

[Dragoman]

I don't know anything about this part of the world, so I will not chime in about the specifics.

BUT, this comment by "JC from Ct." caught my attention:

JC from Ct.

...   Not sure that any freight to speak of moves by rail in southwestern Ct. 

 

Isn't that a circular sort of observation?  Little (or no) rail service, so little or no freight moving by rail, so no need to re-activate the rail line?

[MidlandMike]

JC from Ct.

Way too many gaps in the area.  Is the Danbury-Derby line still active?  Not sure that any freight to speak of moves by rail in southwestern Ct. 

 

An article in Trains NewsWire today says that that the CT segment is not part of the section of line under review.

http://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2016/10/25-mta-beacon-hill