Great news for the DURR:

https://www.dailyfreeman.com/news/local ... 7ea34.html

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KINGSTON, N.Y. — The Delaware & Ulster Railroad soon will be back on track in Ulster County.

County Executive Michael Hein says he has struck a deal that gives the not-for-profit organization a five-year lease to a 930-foot stretch of track between the Delaware County border and Highmount, near the Belleayre Mountain Ski Center.

The lease will allow the railroad to offer scenic train rides in Ulster County for the first time since 2001, Hein said.

Hein said the return of the railroad to Ulster County builds on a county policy for rail and trail use of the county-owned former Ulster & Delaware railroad corridor.

“The county is excited to reconnect this western segment of the county-owned railroad line in Shandaken to the increasingly successful Delaware & Ulster Railroad tourism trains,” Hein said.

The five-year lease will take effect on Jan. 1, 2019, said Chris White, deputy director of the Ulster County Planning Department.

White said the railroad won’t pay the county to use the stretch of track but has agreed to be responsible for all maintenance and repairs along the corridor and adjacent to state Route 28 and Galli Curci Road.

“There is no fee for the use of the 930 feet of track, but in exchange, the Delaware & Ulster Railroad is going to be responsible for maintaining, trimming and repairing the line, including Galli Curci Road, which goes up to Belleayre and is the last road in Ulster County,” White said.

The agreement also gives the railroad the ability to construct a station area where passengers can access and disembark from the trans, and it provides a "siding run-around." The run-around is a second set of tracks that will allow the railroad to move its locomotive engine from one end of the train to the other so the train can be pulled in the opposite direction.

The Delaware & Ulster Railroad, which is operated by the Catskill Mountain Revitalization Corp., operated tourist and excursion trains in Ulster County from the mid-1980s until 2001, when it ceased its Ulster operations to focus on Delaware County. The group currently runs tourist trains between Arkville and Roxbury in Delaware County.

White said the organization intends to rehabilitate the tracks between Arkville and Highmount and could have tourist trains running into Ulster County by late 2019.

“This important partnership puts the 'Ulster' back in our operation and will support our plans to attract more visitors to the western Catskills,” said Wes Coates, general manager of the Delaware & Ulster Railroad.

Ulster County Legislature Chairman Ken Ronk said that in crafting a policy for the 38-mile rail corridor the county owns, the Legislature left that section of track open for future rail operations with the hope that the Delaware & Ulster Railroad would someday resume operations there.

“I’m thrilled they have worked out a deal for it,” said Ronk, R-Wallkill.

Legislator David Donaldson, D-Kingston, said he was unaware an agreement had been reached with the not-for-profit group for use of the tracks, but he said that it "made sense" to have the Delaware & Ulster Railroad resume operations there.

In 2015, the Ulster County Legislature adopted a compromise plan for the future of the corridor that provided for segmented rail and trail use both east and west of the Ashokan Reservoir, ending a lengthy dispute between the county and the Catskill Mountain Railroad over the use of the corridor.

Subsequent to the adoption of that policy, the Catskill Mountain Railroad was given a lease to run a tourist train between Kingston Plaza in the city of Kingston and state Route 28A in the town of Ulster.

Rail Explorers Corp. was given a lease to operate a rail bike operation between Boiceville and Phoenicia, a stretch on which the Catskill Mountain Railroad used to operate.