Chances for the Scenic RailRiders to continue operating their business in Concord are dimming as the state of New Hampshire denied their plea to interrupt the city’s purchase of a six-mile stretch of tracks.
“Regardless of which public entity acquires” the rail corridor spanning from Horseshoe Pond to Boscawen, “it will be locally managed by the City of Concord,” Deputy Transportation Commissioner Shelley Winters wrote in an email over the weekend to the LeBlanc family, which owns the RailRiders business. “Therefore, decisions regarding its design and future use fall under the Cityโs jurisdiction โ not the Departmentโs.”
On Tuesday, the state officially waived its right of first refusal to buy the rail line, paving the way for the city to move forward with its plans.
Earlier this fall, the City of Concord entered into an agreement to buy the six-mile stretch of railroad tracks that has long been eyed for the expansion of the Merrimack River Greenway Trail, which is planned to run the length of the city and connect with a statewide trail network. The agreement includes a provision for CSX, the freight company that owns it now, to tear out and salvage the tracks, which the business needs to operate its pedal rail cars.
The sale would also uproot and force the closure of the Scenic RailRiders, a rail cart biking business that opened in 2019 and has been leasing a section of the tracks.
While sympathetic, city leaders didn’t see a way for the RailRiders to coexist with the Greenway trail, convinced by engineers and Greenway Trail supporters that doing both wasn’t an option. A “trail between rails” wouldn’t meet the width requirements laid out in a federal grant secured for the project, and a side-by-side arrangement would likely raise the cost of the Greenway Trail by adding sitework and a bridge expansion.
The LeBlancs, a Peabody, Mass. family with a seasonal home in Conway, initially hoped their current landlord, CSX, might come to their aid, but that didn’t pan out. More recently, they asked the state to step in and buy the rail line on their behalf. The family offered to put a large sum towards the sale price, and in return, they asked for a long-term lease to secure their business’s future.
While it’s still not clear whether the state will exercise its right of first refusal, the response from Winters, the DOT official, indicated that the state isn’t interested.
“Your proposal to explore a trail-with-rail biking solution is thoughtful, and your willingness to contribute financially to the corridorโs preservation is creative and commendable,” Winters wrote, “but your recommended modifications and changes to a pending sale and legal processes is not as easy as you may imply.”
Meanwhile, the Greenway Trail has put out a call to its supporters: “Don’t let them derail the MRGT!” Their petition encouraging the DOT to back the city’s plan received several hundred signatures in its first two days.
