JIM THORPE, Pa. — The Reading & Northern Railroad has resolved its tax dispute with the borough of Jim Thorpe and will resume passenger rail service to and from the community, the railroad announced. The first trips resulting from the agreement will come Saturday, Feb. 15, as part of Jim Thorpe’s Winterfest.
The R&N had shut down its Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway operation, based in Jim Thorpe, in November after the borough and its school district sued the railroad, saying it owed money from a local amusement tax [see “Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway to cease operations,” Trains News Wire, Oct. 16, 2019.] The suits were dropped in November, paving the way for the agreement announced Tuesday.
“We are pleased to resume service to and from Jim Thorpe and put the amusement tax issue behind us,” R&N owner/CEO Andy Muller Jr. said in a press release. “We have consistently stated that we are not now, and have never been, an amusement. … We are delighted that the borough leadership has decided to work with us on continuing our tradition of bringing visitors to Jim Thorpe and offering train rides sharing the history of Jim Thorpe and the region to people from all over the country.”
The railroad said it would announce its full passenger schedule “in the near future.”
If they trust government to keep its word, there’s a developer looking for backers to build an oceanfront beach resort in Idaho that they will want to invest in.
Steven Berg, evidently you CAN fix stupid. This is an excellent case in point.
I suspect the merchants of Jim Thorpe took the borough officials aside and read them the riot act.
What the powers to be in Jim Thorpe basically did is, shoot themselves in the foot by trying to illegally “extort” monies from the railroad. I can’t even imagine how much tourist spending was lost during this idiotic move by the town mucky-mucks. Just proves, you can never fix stupid.
Daniel…Yup, after the fact…anyway, nice article in Railway Age today, railroad brings in 200,000 riders and spends boo-koo bucks on local advertising….didn’t say if this was yearly or total to date, but, still a lot of money lost over the last 3-4 months…so, an expensive stupid fix, if you will.