Tonight at North Elba’s town meeting, two long-time adversaries will appear together to advocate for the same cause:\u00a0 the dismantling of the tourist train between Lake Placid and Saranac Lake.<\/p>\n
Snowmobile enthusiast and activist Jim McCulley will appear.\u00a0 He’s the guy who pushed to open a section of the Jackrabbit ski trail to motorized recreation.<\/p>\n
Also on the agenda to speak is Tony Goodwin, skier and trail builder and chief steward of the Jackrabbit.<\/p>\n
North Elba is considering whether to build a parallel trail to the railroad for bicycles and boot traffic, but McCulley and Goodwin want that plan scrapped.<\/p>\n
“Our position is that the grant money would go much farther if they could just wait until the tracks were gone,” Goodwin writes in an email.<\/p>\n
Tonight’s meeting is the latest salvo in a long-running debate over the future of tourism trains in the Adirondacks.\u00a0 Supporters say they offer a unique draw for tourists visiting the region.<\/p>\n
Opponents say the corridor, owned by the state Department of Transportation, would be much more sustainable and popular as a multiuse trail.<\/p>\n
So far, the DOT has shown little willingness to reconsider the use of the rail line.\u00a0 The state has continued to underwrite much of the tourist train’s operations.<\/p>\n
But the North Elba town board has expressed skepticism about the train in the past and tonight’s meeting could offer some new sense for where this discussion is going.<\/p>\n
So what do you think?\u00a0 Does the train have a future?\u00a0 Or would you rather be bicycling or snowmobiling along that trail?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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