Rail trail draft study under wraps for now

LACONIA — A year ago, the City Council endorsed a proposal for the city to commission a study to be paid for by the WOW Trail Committee to study the pros and cons of extending the Winnisquam-Opechee-Winnipesaukee trail next to the railroad tracks along Paugus Bay, or in place of those tracks. 

Alta Planning and Design was selected to conduct the report, which is still not complete, but a draft version has been shared with several dozen organizations and has been characterized in an op-ed piece by a leading trail proponent.

The draft report has not been shared with the public.

City Manager Scott Myers on Tuesday referred a request for the report to Allan Beetle, president of the WOW Trail organization. Beetle, who also declined to produce a copy, wrote an opinion piece about it that appeared on Aug. 29 and will speak about it to the Laconia Rotary Club on Thursday.

In a brief interview, Beetle said the report is incomplete because 3M in Tilton, which is apparently the last company to receive rail freight service between Tilton and Lincoln, has yet to respond to questions as part of the study.

He said that in other parts of the country, lawsuits have dragged out rail-trail proposals.

“I’m not looking forward to that aspect,” he said.

Beetle said he hopes people will learn more about the proposal and be supportive of it.

“If every community is wholeheartedly supportive of removing a section of track, this can be done,” he said. “If they are not supportive, I don’t think this will happen.

“There has to be some education, and then people can decide whether they want to take an opportunity to make an impact on the community or not.”

In his op-ed piece, Beetle said “the study will report that a completed regional trail, built alongside or in place of the railroad tracks, will encourage hundreds of thousands of user trips each year, bringing benefits to our community that include increased tourism and spending, health and safety benefits, new transportation options (think errands and commuting to work), improved property values and more.”

He wrote that this rail corridor, which is used by a tourist train, is under-utilized.

“This is incredibly valuable real estate running right through our communities that would provide access to spectacular river, lake and mountain views to thousands of trail users,” he stated. “Trestles and causeways are used more for fishing and jumping off spots (illegally) than any train operations.”

It would be much more expensive to build the public hiking and biking trail alongside the tracks between Lakeport and The Weirs, than it would be to tear up the tracks.

However, the Plymouth & Lincoln Railroad, which runs tourist trains on those tracks, objects to removal of the tracks. Also, many homeowners who live near the tracks do not want to see a public trail extended near their residences.

Patrick Herlihy of the New Hampshire Department of Transportation has said rail service takes priority over recreational trail use in any state-owned corridor.

Bruce Miller, president of the South Down Shores Association, and Dick Bordwell, president of the Long Bay Association, have voiced opposition to expansion plans over privacy and crime concerns for their residents near the tracks. They also made an economic argument.

“The Plymouth & Lincoln Railroad, which runs on the rail lines, generates roughly $1,000,000 in annual ticket sales resulting in almost $100,000 in payments to the State of New Hampshire; revenues that are in turn shared with cities and towns,” they said in a letter to the editor.

“Obviously, this would disappear should the city tear up the tracks. Would revenue from the WOW Trail offset it? Common sense says no. There is literally no place for a trail user to spend a penny on the west side of Paugus Bay; all of the retail exists on the east side.”

Beetle, the WOW Trail organization president, said the train could still run and generate revenue from The Weirs to Meredith and points north even if the tracks were removed in the Lakeport-to-The Weirs section.   

The WOW Trail currently stretches from the Belmont town line to the Lakeport area of Laconia, a distance of 2.5 miles. The Winni Scenic Trail in Belmont and the Winni River Trail in Franklin provide another 5.5 miles of rail trail.