NEW YORK — The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has sold a little-used route between Danbury, Conn., and Beacon, N.Y., for conversion in to a rail trail.
The conversion will come in the next three years, through a state-funded, $33.6-million design-build contract awarded to Arch Associates LLC, in concert with rail trail design firm McLaren.
The MTA bought the ex-New Haven line — once part of the railroad’s busy Maybook freight route, connecting New Haven, Conn., with the railroad’s western connections at Maybrook and Campbell Hall, N.Y. — for $4.2 million in the mid-1990s. With the single-track line connecting, via trackage rights in Connecticut, to the New Haven Danbury Line at Danbury, the Harlem Line at Brewster N.Y., and the Hudson Line in Beacon, N.Y., the largely unused line’s acquisition seemed like a slam-dunk at the time.
At various times, the line was considered for transverse commuter trains between Beacon and Danbury, for trains from Hopewell Junction, N.Y., to Grand Central terminal, and for off-peak shuttles to Brewster. The costs of upgrading the track and low revenue potential rendered such plans moot, and the line, known as the MTA’s Beacon Line, was used mostly to transfer equipment.
By October of 2016, the MTA was looking for someone to take over the line, with a “request for expressions of interest,” ideas what to do with the trackage. In 2017, the decision was made to use part of the line, between Hopewell Junction and Brewster, as a rail trail. It will become part of the Maybrook Trailway, connecting through Hopewell Junction to Poughkeepsie‘s Walkway over the Hudson, where steam and Diesel engines once moved freight to and from Maybrook Yard. The new trail will also be part of the Empire State Trailway, extending from New York to the Canadian border near Plattsburgh, and westward from Albany to downtown Buffalo.
The trail will use part of the Beacon Line right-of-way, while preserving existing underground fiber optic cable installations and the rail line for future use.
— Updated at 1:35 p.m. CDT on March 29 with more details on the route’s New Haven heritage.
That convoluted 1890s routing reflected the effort by Philadelphia & Reading chief A.A. McLeod to get into New England in competition with J.P. Morgan’s New Haven, before the New Haven had leased either the NY&NE/NERR or the CNE. Supposedly McLeod said he would rather run a peanut stand than be dictated to by Morgan; Morgan retaliated during the Panic of 1893 by forcing the Reading into bankruptcy, costing McLeod his job and breaking up the loose control the Reading had developed over several lines east of the Hudson.
Federal was diverted 1912-1917 from carfloat route. Fatal July 1911 derailment west of Bridgeport (at S.S. 55) blamed in part on excessively fast running to make up for time lost during that night’s carfloat move plus extra switching at Harlem River.
The “Federal” ran via the Poughkeepsie Bridge from mid-1912 to 1917, ending the middle-of-the-night carferry connection across New York Harbor between NYNH&H’s Harlem River yard in the Bronx and PRR’s Greenville (NJ) yard. This had been known as the “Steamer Maryland Route” for the car ferry, which originally crossed the Susquehanna River between Perryville and Havre de Grace, MD, until PRR subsidiary Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore built its first bridge there. Supposedly NYNH&H rerouted the “Federal” to avoid scaring off passengers in the aftermath of the Titanic sinking on April 15, 1912.
While there was, briefly, through passenger service in the 1890s between Boston and Washington that also used the Poughkeepsie Bridge, running on the former New York & New England RR via Willlimantic and Hartford, I had thought the 20th-century reroute used the much faster Shore Line between Boston and Devon, CT, then the Maybrook Line to the bridge and beyond.
High Iron Travel ran a Housatonic RR excursion in May 2004 that covered almost the entire railroad, including use of HRRC’s trackage rights on Metro-North between the New York state line west of Danbury and Beacon, via Hopewell Jct. This may have been the last public excursion to cover what is being sold, since there were bridge problems at Brewster, NY in later years, plus excepted track from Newtown, CT east to Derby Jct. on the former Maybrook.
OK. The Federal Express did go this way 1911-16 but I’m not going to go digging through my papers as to whether it was routed via Hartford (old NY&NE from Boston) vs. run down today’s Shore Line to Devon then over the Maybrook Line as Providence and other cities were important traffic points. The Poughkeepsie Bridge was part of the Central New England which the NH leased in 1903; keeping track of who owned/had operating agreements over what was tricky at that time. That earlier Boston to Washington (and Philadelphia) train of the early 1890’s had a very peculiar route: The Central Mass. Boston-Northampton, then the New Haven & Northampton line down to Simsbury then west over the Hartford & Connecticut Western (much later Central New England) thence snaking down thru rural upstate to the Poughkeepsie Bridge and then on. In the mid-1890’s, same by 1895, I’ve seen a NY&NE (later briefly the New England RR before being leased by the NH in 1898 and merged in 1908) train listed with a Boston-Chicago sleeper run Boston-Hartford-Poughkeepsie Bridge thence to the Erie for Chicago. Yes, I do have the Danbury-Fishkill Landing line (several times) but I hope they don’t lift the rails in fact it serves as an important by-pass. As for the demise of freight business there was the issue that the Housatonic is/was a non-union RR and the Metro North unions would not permit a non-union railroad to operate service over a union line. Thus the business died. Speaking of car floats, I wonder if there have been any contingency plans if (God forbid) the North and East River Tunnels flooded for car float operations of passenger cars/trains between Jersey City and Brooklyn or Oak Point? Massive bus shuttle operations were more like it in that case.
On h Gishlik’s Comment — yes, there was. The Washington to Boston Federal Express ran over the Poughkeepsie Bridge for a number of years, before Hell Gate, the East River Tunnels, and the Hudson Tubes. The route was Boston to Hartford, CT via Willimantic, then through northwestern Connecticut on the Central New England to Millbrook, NY, then southwest to the bridge. With the exception of a one mile industrial spur in Canaan, Connecticut, none of the like still exists.
Conrail used to run a Selkirk, NY to Cedar Hill turn in the late 90’s if I recall correctly. Since then the line has seen very little use except to serve a few customers on the far east and west sides of the line. I know economics plays a large part in this decision to abandon the line. Still though it is sad to see it go.
I stayed at a Danbury hotel next to the tracks in 2006. Looked like there was promise at that time—good quality track, if weeds.
Given the threats to the shoreline NE corridor from storm surges and rising ocean levels, it seems shortsighted to sell…
But if it keeps the RoW intact, that is better than nothing…
The MTA is in desperate financial straits and whatever they can sell which will bring a few more pennies or millions they will do. Maybe this sale will help allieviate some of their cash flow and money problems which in reality it won’t. But a railroad and the tracks has to make money to survive A trackor ROw that don’t produce and no real source of income coming in is not worth having or keeping. As for the excursion trains and chartered specials that were run in the past on this line, it is nice but we have seen many rail excursion operations and companies fold up to lack of interest or lack of money or insurance coverage that make it impossible to operate or turn a profit. As much as I don’t exactly approve of tracks being torn up or ROW s becoming bike trails or sometimes even roadways, This is the harst reality of today’s world and changing tastes and habits of people today. Mankind thought he conquered Mother Nature but Mother Nature has the final say as we see a lot of rail lines tracks and abandoned ROWs reclaimed by her with vegetation and plant life and trees growing over them and virtually disappearing from the landscape
Rail trails have no economic value. Just part of the new dark age coming to New York.
The Danbury to Hopewell Jct used to be double track. A rail trail could have been built on the empty side, and the rails left in place (rail banked). The rail trail would have continued on the connecting rail trail to Poughkeepsie.
Michael – The line entirely parallels the busy I-84, you post. Highway 84 has the Beacon – Newburgh bridge. The rail bridge at Poughkeepsie is either gone or de-rated to a recreation trail unsuitable for trains, not sure which. Do you believe I spelled Poughkeepsie correct on the first try, didn’t get a spell-correct. Never before in my entire life have I tried to keyboard that city name – this time I got it immediately. As far as I know, the New Haven never ran a single passenger train over that route, which is a slow-speed roundabout single-track mountain railroad. You do bring up a point, though, Michael, which is hard to argue. Not every traveler goes through New York City and Philadelphia. Yes, we have driven I-84, seeing no reason to go through New York City, Philadelphia and Washington on a road trip between Massachusetts and Tennessee. The passenger rail system is linear, based on a single route as if that’s where everyone is going. The road system is everywhere to everywhere, thus I-84.
The main reason it was purchased was to move equipment and other non revenue uses. For a while they used it for training engineers. They have a track maintenance school in Hopewell and a K9 training facility in Green Haven/Stormville. And they have laid fiber optic cables along the line. Usage for revenue commuting trains was a far in the future vision. When this was in full service they didn’t have to tie up main lines while they ran slow moving maintenance equipment down to Mott Haven to make connection to another line. Since they owned it I have seen empty continuous rail trains on it twice. Maintenance equipment moves on it many times as well as the engineer training. But as maintenance on infrastructure got ahead of them I guess it wasn’t financially feasible to keep the line in a usable state. Charles Landey the last scheduled passenger trains ran around 1924. Not sure if that was pre New Haven Ownership. But many excursion and chartered passenger trains have run over in the years after that.
I believe there was a Washington-Boston train that ran over that route in the pre-North River Tunnels (Penn Station era) using the Poughkeepsie bridge.
The line in is entirety parallels the busy I-84
At least here they are not trying to force an existing tourist line out of business.
Gerald, why don’t you tell us who would ride a train on the former Maybrook line?
Brett Reid, Mass Transit is not in the money making business, it’s in the business of moving people between homes and jobs/shopping, etc….your comment is barking up the wrong tree.
The costs of upgrading the track and low revenue potential rendered such plans moot, and the line, known as the MTA’s Beacon Line, was used mostly to transfer equipment. So why the heck did they not think of that before they bought it?. That money coulda gone to more important stuff. Another perfect example of govt bein a money losing operation, A private, money makin RR, again a MONEY MAKING RR would of done a feasibility study beforehand, I digress
I had the good fortune to be able ride over this line as part of an NRHS convention held in I believe in Stamford Conn in the year 2000 as well as watching NH traffic over this line in the 1950’s and 60’s. Sad to see it being pulled up but maybe I’ll try to walk over parts of it when it becomes a trail.