Many of you know the news that Berkshire Scenic did not receive a renewal of their operating rights on the Housatonic Rail Road, and the various news stories that covered that event.

In this month's Railway Age is a news item that seems to explain these events, but I am surprised it did not previously appear in these news stories. According to Railway Age, Housatonic Rail Road is proposing its own commercial passenger service from Pittsfield, all the way into Grand Central via Brewster, NY. The proposal is for daily service of six roundtrips. I would imagine that part of this project requires that they assert full control of their property, and eliminate any unnecessary liability exposures.

How is that for interesting?

o

It's interesting for sure, how things have worked out.

This is what irritates me; private company using public funds - gets funds they need, then cancels agreement.

"BSRM does not own the tracks over which it operated its train rides. Train rides were made possible through an agreement between the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) and the Housatonic Railroad Company of Canaan, CT where the Housatonic Railroad, a private company, received public investment in its tracks in return for granting trackage rights to MassDOT. In turn, MassDOT named BSRM the designated operator of tourist railroad service. The owners of the Housatonic Railroad chose to not renew that agreement when it expired in December of 2011 despite the efforts of local community leaders and MassDOT to extend the agreement."

Pretty cheesy if it is what appears....

OK, they lived up to the agreement through its defined and set term. How is that cheesy? Once the agreement expires, both parties are free to either renew or not as the case may be........or is there additional information I'm missing here?

dave

It is indeed frustrating when a for-profit corporation either operates state-owned track, and/or gets state funding to restore track, and then either won't let local non-profit operators use it, or boots out a local non-profit operator. This has happened more than once in Michigan over the years. Even more frustrating when said private owner makes big $$$ from these operations, or by cashing out from them. Makes you wonder who really benefits from the (considerable) money laid out by Michigan over the years to buy and restore the hundreds of miles of track it owns in the state.

Before anyone asks, I don't consider public funding of privately-operated railroads an open license for any local hand-car or speeder operator to use the tracks at will. The private operator can and should use discretion on who uses the tracks and when, and on what terms. But to boot out an established, qualified operation raises questions of who is really benefitting from the public subsidy.

Chris.

Housatonics plan for its public service is a pipe dream to drum up funding to get another state/fed grant to pay for Track/Bridge repairs, there is for sure a need to upgrade the trackage as they have shown to be a good link in moving traffic vs. taking the painstaking highway routes which the lines parralel.

"I am Speculating, The housatonic it seems is trying to play a simular game that they played with MASSDoT"

However the railroad did honor their agreement and have also helped the organization where it could, and do to lack of maintance the Housatonic did not renew its agreement for liability concerns with the Berkshire Scenic

make no mistake if you do not maintain your track you have a liability there have been multiple derailments and close calls with general frieght service on the branch, some incidences causing state/local and rail officials to be pulled into close door meetings with the states in which these incidence have occured and I have heard some heads rolled and further investigations started,

some of these incidences that have occured have been in train handling not everything is track related, but maintance seems to be minimal unless it is publicily funded

"I'm not affilated with the railroad or the musuem, and no information in this post has anything to do the members or membership or the rmne", the sources I have talked to about this are Well Connected and Well Involved in the Industry, and are NOT MUSUEM WARRIORS" "these are my statements and NO ONE ELSES" (there you go brent)

*******Can't believe I need to push legal disclaimers to protect the innocent please everyone remember the 5th amendment its frankly getting rediculious"

The Housatonic owns the 90 or so miles between Danbury and Pittsfield outright. CDOT proposals over the years to extend Metro-North Danbury Line service to Brooklyn and New Milford, which seem to be pretty ubiquitous in recent years, always seem to stick on the point any and all plans are totally reliant on acquiring or negotiating trackage rights on privately-owned right of way, all of which also currently sits condition far from fit for commute service. That said, the portion of the proposed route from Danbury from Brewster is now owned by the MTA (which IIRC, ironically enough, purchased it from a holding subsidiary of the HRC), though I do believe HRC retains the freight contract for both it and the Harlem Line—despite the former being out of service for some time. I wish the Housatonic luck and would be ecstatic to have an easy escape route from Gotham to the Great Barrington area, though I'd bet my shiny nickel the ultimate result will most likely be the Metro-North extension to New Milford. If traffic on the the 202 bridge is any indication, the population base certainly seems to be there...