A better idea for Adirondack corridor

We are glad to hear that more and more north country businesses and residents are voicing a preference for using the Adirondack Travel Corridor (Utica to Lake Placid) as a recreational trail year-round over the seasonal rail use. Hundreds of petition cards available at the bicycle shops and other venues are reaching the state Department of Transportation and making it clear that people prefer jobs, income and profit over a nostalgic, very expensive novelty and very select group's dream. Keep it up, the rails have got to go. Railroad ties are rough on a bike, horses hate to walk on ballast, and most of all hundreds of snowmobilers, the largest per-person spending group, will not ride the rails to go north.

We are missing a huge opportunity for this corridor to bring prosperity to many, not just to entertain a few at huge taxpayer expense.

It costs about the same to spray the weeds for the train this season on the railroad (taxpayers' DOT funds) as it did to groom the tracks all season for snowmobiling, which was all paid for by the snowmobilers.

Scott Thompson

Eagle Bay