[SustainableTompkins] Rail versus bikes

Tue Mar 4 14:24:07 PST 2008

Thanks Andrejs for that shot across the bow!  Let me make it crystal clear that I am certainly not advocating abandoning the Black Diamond Trail in favor of restoring the original railroad. I am an ardent supporter of the Black Diamond Trail and have been for over twenty years.

  That said, the Black Diamond Trail project and most of the the hundred of rail-trail projects and other bike-ped path projects throughout the United States are still a symptom of Americans' warped priotities when it comes to transportation and environmental responsibility.  While the rest of the world is upgrading their railroad systems to maintain efficiency and competiveness over autos and trucks, we are converting ours to recreational trails.

  While the rest of the world views the bicycle as a key component in a diversified transportation system, Americans view it as a mere toy.  Nothing is more evident of this than the hundreds of millions of dollars that have been sunk into recreational bikeways and rail trails to nowhere across the country over the past decade.

  Even here in Ithaca interms of transportation policy the bicycle is still treated as a toy, not as an alternative to the automobile.  Otherwise I would not be able to count on one hand the number of fellow bicycle commuters that I have encounter during my morning and afternoon bike commutes to and from work in downtown Ithaca over the past year.

  Otherwise the City of Ithaca wouldn't be investing 2-3 million dollars in the Cayuga Waterfront Trail, which not only does not go anywhere useful, it may actually end up being downright dangerous as a mixed bicycle-pedestrain route.  

  Otherwise one third to half of the 21 miles of bicycle pedestrian paths proposed in the Park, Recreation and Open Space Plan I wrote for the Town of Ithaca would have been built by now.  Instead, finally this year the first 3/4 mile segement was completed.  

  Meanwhile the Town failed to preserve the right-of-way necessary for the bike path proposed to extend from the hospital south across West Hill to Elm Street when it approved the second phase of Linderman Creek Apartments; it's failed to preserve the bike path right of way from Troy Road eastward and down to the South Hill Recreationway as called for in the plan; and I'm pretty sure the proposed path from Troy Road northward and westward to Coddington Road in the vicinity of the IC entrance is being sacrificed to the new IC mega-athletic complex proposed at the eastern edge of the campus.

  I bet too that the connector between the hospital and the Black Diamond Trail via a relatively gentle gradient as proposed in the Plan is not showing up on the plat for the hundred-plus townhouse condominium development proposed for behind the Museum of the Earth and Finger Lakes School of Massage.

  Otherwise the bicycle pedestrian path I proposed a few years ago to connect homes in Ellis Hollow with Cornell and other points on East Hill would not have been cut from the new comprehensive plan for the Town of Dryden due to residents' opposition.

  The Black Diamond Trail does have the potential to function as something more than a recreational path.  At least when it is built it will connects two major activity nodes - Ithaca and Trumansburg, and hence provide somewhat of a viable bicycle commuter route.  Until the Town of Ithaca and Town of Ulysses however invest in the feeder paths necessary to make it a functional transportation route for residents closer in to Ithaca, it's doomed to be little more than a recreational path and Ithaca and Tompkins County are doomed to be as auto-oriented as the rest of the country.

  George Frantz

  P.S.  Joel,  the early railroads acquired rights of way across peoples property that would then reverted back to the underlying properties upon abandonment.  After the mid-1800s however I think most railroads however acquired title to the underlying property, not just a right-of-way over the property.  NYSEG when it acquired both the DL&W on South Hill and the LV grade on West Hill in the 1950s and 1960s also took the extra step of "quieting" any title adjoining property owners may have had to the railroad rights of way.

  New York State by the way also appropriated all underlying title to public highway rights-of way in the early 20th century.

Joel and Sarah Gagnon <Joel.and.Sarah.Gagnon at lightlink.com> wrote:
  Unless I'm wrong, railroads never did own the road beds. They were granted 
long-term rights-of-way (99 years). When routes were abandoned, the 
underlying land reverted to the owners at the time of the grants.

At any rate, I agree that the railroads will want to control the land 
before making much of an investment. Public ownership does not preclude 
long-term lease. Neither does it necessarily rule out shared use. I know of 
no precedent, but wouldn't it make sense to divide the right-of-way, 
perhaps with a fence, with the track on one side and a 
transportation/recreation trail on the other? In fact, in exchange for 
access to the public's roadway, perhaps the public could secure use of the 
tracks for commuter rail, with freight traffic scheduled during 
non-commuter hours. Alternatively, if the private sector isn't interested, 
wouldn't it make sense to have the public put the rails in, with the 
freight traffic helping to pay for the development of commuter rail and a 
bicycle/recreation way on the same divided roadbed?

Joel

Joel

At 05:53 PM 3/3/08 -0500, you wrote:
> > There are no rails there now; the graded route will still be there
> > should we need it for rail. And ownership of it will be clear.
>
>Seems to me that it would work the other way around. I don't know
>of any railroads on public land. Rail companies have to own the
>road bed before they'll invest anything in it.
>
>I doubt that people around here are going to be willing to sell
>that land back to a rail company before we run out of the
>resources to put the rails back.
>
>Jon
>
>
>Gail Blake wrote:
> > I used to be ambivalent about the creation of rail trails also. As a
> > someone who bicycles for transportation, I know that they are not
> > just "recreational" as George says, but rather provide safe
> > transportation corridors for non-motorized movement. But I had
> > concerns that the rail beds would someday be needed for rail and that
> > this possibility would be lost if they became trails. What I have
> > come to realize, however, is that a trail is still a publicly owned
> > right of way and is a much better way to protect these corridors for
> > public use than allowing the neighboring landowners to treat them as
> > private property, putting up fences and blockages, as has occurred
> > along the route of the Black Diamond Trail. There are no rails there
> > now; the graded route will still be there should we need it for rail.
> > And ownership of it will be clear.
> >
> > Gail Blake
> >
> > At 12:43 PM 3/3/2008, you wrote:
> >> The most direct rail link between NYC and Seneca Meadows would
> >> actually be through Ithaca. The railbed is even still
> >> intact. Unfortunately it's reserved for a higher priority - the
> >> Black Diamond Trail recreational bikeway.
> >>
> >
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