Quote:
Originally Posted by Trail Goer
XCR-700 - the trains and tracks are not being removed. The former mayor of Laconia, the city council and the board of directors for the WOW Trail, pushed real hard to try and make that happen. After about 3 to 4 years of tension build up, things were brought to the forefront at a jampacked Laconia City Council meeting in November 2019. At that meeting, a report from a 2nd study (done at the same time as the WOW Trail's study), was presented to the city council. The 2nd report painted a much different picture than the one paid for by the city and WOW Tail. After going over both reports the city council, changed their tune rather quickly. The Winnipesaukee Scenic Railroad, has a much larger economic impact to the area, than what they were aware of or what they wanted to believe in. Case in point the econmic loss of the railroad, would be greater than that of what the rail-trail could generate.
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Many Thanks for that very clear untangling of this thread.
Personally I am happy with this outcome, but I do understand why some would desire the change. These matters are always difficult and someone is always unhappy with the outcome. In a perfect world someone would have built both a train track and a seperate walking path, but cost of labor and land being always a factor, we usually dont get everything we want,,,
ATB