UPPER DELAWARE REGION – A $4.4 million New York State Dept. of Transportation (DOT) grant is helping to improve nearly 75 miles of railroad track along the Upper Delaware River Valley.

“This multi-million project is called the Curve Patch Project,” Melanie Boyer, spokesperson for the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway (NYSW) in Cooperstown, said. “The railroad isn’t straight and, in fact, has a lot of curves in it as it follows the [Delaware] river.”

Boyer said the project picks up the track 28 miles west of Port Jervis where the rail line crosses the river from Pennsylvania to New York, just above the Roebling Bridge in Minisink Ford.

The project then proceeds nearly 75 miles west and ends at mile marker 176, which is approximately 10 miles west of Hancock.

“There are 48 different curves in New York [along this project],” Boyar said.

And much like a roadway, Boyer noted, “That track will wear down on one side [of a curve] more than the other.”

The project included replacing 10,000 worn out ties, replacing 72,000 linear feet of track [13.63 miles] and then putting down new ballast. Boyer said the project was also working on part of the track which it uses in Pennsylvania, but that part of the project was “a totally separate project.

“We are replacing the more worn side of the tracks in both New York and PA,” she said. “By replacing the 10,000 ties, it will also help to stabilize the tracks.

“We rent the rail line from Norfolk Southern and we have one freight train per day use the tracks,” Boyer noted. “It is a very important connector for us between New York and New Jersey, allowing us to move product in either direction. It is an important part of our overall traffic.”

Nearly two dozen workmen from Frontier Railroad Services in New Stanton, PA were on the crew last Saturday afternoon, replacing rails in Hankins along with guidance from NYSW employees.

Rumors in Hancock included that the work was being done to allow passenger trains to once again ride the rails along the Delaware River.

However, both workmen on the project and Boyer quickly dispelled that myth as not part of any plan, now or in the future.

“We would need to do a lot more work [to allow passenger service],” one workman said.

Boyer agreed, “We have no plans for passenger service right now.”