Business may help put rail service back on track

Freight traffic could resume on the Upper Hudson River Railroad as soon as next year, as a northern Warren County business seeks to get its product to market more cheaply, the Post Star reports. Barton Mines would use trains to transport product from its North River mines to markets right now, if it could, said Chuck Barton, chief operating officer of the company.

Barton said the company
has made an application to the government to begin using rail transportation
when freight traffic resumes on the Upper Hudson line. He said the status of
that application was unclear.

The company, which mines
garnet and produces garnet-related products, recently expanded production at
the North River site and plans to re-enter the European sales market, Barton
said. It also is working on a material that would use a byproduct of its
production process, and if it decides to sell that material commercially, rail
transportation would be an efficient way to get it out of Johnsburg.

"If it was to
materialize, the railroad would be a nice option," he said.

It’s been at least four
decades since freight trains used the rail line that begins in the hamlet of
Tahawus, Essex County and makes its way south to Saratoga Springs.

Representatives of a
Maine-based railroad company were in Warren County last week to meet with
Barton representatives and Warren County officials. Fred Monroe, chairman of
the Warren County Board of Supervisors, said the railroad representatives also
inspected the tracks on the Upper Hudson line. The company, Maine Eastern
Railroad, was one of three prospective operators for the railroad that met with
county officials earlier this year.

The county is preparing
to put out a request for proposals for a railroad operator for 2011, and the
prospective operators that met with supervisors in February indicated they
wanted to be able to have freight rights in addition to operating the North
Creek-based tourist railroad.

Johnsburg Supervisor
Sterling Goodspeed said he was aware Barton had interest in using freight
trains and said he had been approached by other business owners in the county
who have interest as well.

"It could be a
culture-changing event for Johnsburg if it happens," he said of the
resumption of freight traffic to the North Country.

There are still some
hurdles, however.

Warren County owns the
freight rights from North Creek to Antone Mountain Road in Corinth, but
Canadian Pacific Railway owns the freight rights for much of the line between
Corinth and Saratoga Springs. Negotiations are under way to try to have those
freight rights released, Monroe said.

"We want to make
sure we have all the information on freight rights before we put out the
RFP," said county Administrator/Attorney Paul Dusek.

NL Industries Inc., which
formerly operated iron mines in Essex County, owns the section of rail between
North Creek and North River. So the county or railroad operator would have to
get permission to use the line, or someone would have to purchase the line from
the owner.