The Dutchess County Transportation Council is evaluating the feasibility of constructing a 13-mile multi-use rail trail along the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Beacon Line.
The Beacon Line runs between the Hudson River in the City of Beacon and the hamlet of Hopewell Junction in the Town of East Fishkill. It also connects to trails such as the Riverfront Trail and future Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail in Beacon, and the William R Steinhaus Dutchess Rail Trail and Empire State Trail in Hopewell Junction (East Fishkill).
The study will document the challenges and opportunities of constructing a rail trail, and then present several design concepts to stakeholders and the public for review and feedback. The study will ultimately produce a recommended trail concept with cost estimates.
The Beacon Line consists of parts of two former railroads. The western portion is the Beacon Secondary Track, formerly known as the Newburgh, Dutchess and Connecticut Railroad, which runs from a connection south of Beacon, on the Hudson Line at the former Dutchess Junction to Hopewell Junction. The eastern portion is the Maybrook Line, or Maybrook Branch, which runs from Hopewell Junction to Danbury, Connecticut, where it joins the Danbury Branch.
The Metro-North Railroad’s Beacon Line is a non-revenue line connecting the railroad’s three revenue lines east of the Hudson River. From west to east, the lines that connect are Hudson Line, Harlem Line, and the Danbury Branch of the New Haven Line.
It was purchased by Metro-North in 1995 for $4.2 million from Maybrook Properties, a subsidiary of the Housatonic Railroad, to preserve it for future use, training, and equipment moves. Maybrook Properties purchased the line from Conrail after Conrail withdrew from the Danbury, Connecticut, freight market in 1992.
On February 26, 2021, Metro-North announced it would file with the Surface Transportation Board to seek an adverse discontinuance of the Housatonic Railroad’s trackage rights over the line, allowing MNR to abandon the line and convert it to an interim trail.
Take a survey or learn more about the proposed Beacon-Hopewell Rail Trail.
Illustration: Proposed Beacon-Hopewell Rail Trail map.
