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Thursday, November 20, 2014

Early Excursion Train Study Balances Potential With Infrastructure Needs

SNOW HILL – An initial feasibility study indicates there is potential for an excursion railroad operation in Worcester County, but that a number of physical issues would need to be addressed first.

Infrastructure improvements would need to be made to the railroad track itself and boarding locations would need to be built before a tourist train could be up and running between Berlin and Snow Hill, according to a report presented Tuesday to the Worcester County Commissioners.

Randy Gustafson of Stone Consulting, the company that handled the feasibility study, said the main issue was the track, which is currently being used by Maryland and Delaware Railroad Co. freight trains. He said it needed to be improved in areas and that passing sidings in Berlin and Newark had to be built.

“It needs help,” he said. “It needs additional ties. It’s not necessarily a lost cause.”

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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

No conclusion, no plan to move forward.

NEXT!

Anonymous said...

Waste of time and money. Berlin isn't attracting people by train. Families are coming here in their own vehicles. Not enough jobs for everyday transit.

Anonymous said...

more wasteful spending, that Badger fellow can certainly waste a lot of money on studies, etc. hopefully, the new county commissioners will reign in the spending. any person could have walked down those train tracks and know they are not safe for use.

Anonymous said...

I don't think its such a bad idea. Snow Hill has a lot of potential but its so far off the beaten path. Getting a way to get people to take a trip there without having to take their car may work out.

I would love to see the train go through Marion and then into Crisfield. Marion is a historic Rail station and it would be cool to see that revived.

I know this is day dreaming but If you had an excursion train running from OC to Crisfield then you may get companies from the western part of the bay to bring tourist into Crisfield by boat for excursion trips to Ocean City.

Imagine having a traditional looking Steamer trip across the bay and then hop onto an old school train for a trip into Ocean City.

Of course I would only advocate this if it came from private funding.

LadyLiddy said...

This is an excellent idea for the further development of these two beautiful historic towns. I fully support it. There have been such improvement in these to towns to attract tourism. This addition would be icing on the cake. These towns would become much more attractive to potential business owners.