REGION – In the early 1900’s Callicoon was bustling with people coming and going from the train station.

The line that now is exclusive to freight functioned as a commuter train service. Visitors and local residents were able to commute to and from New York City on regularly scheduled commuter rail cars. Tourism flourished.

That train service ended in 1969 and there have been intermittent attempts to bring it back.

Now Western Supper Club and Inn owner Irene Nickolai and Callicoon Brewing company’s Patti Morhead have teamed up to create a plan to make it happen. The non-profit Catskill Explorer is fast tracking the plan with weekend service proposed for Narrowsburg, Callicoon and Hancock.

Nickolai and Morhead presented the project to the Delaware Town Board at its meeting last week and explained that the passenger train will connect to New York City through the already existing Port Jervis station.

“Without viable public transportation to our towns the businesses have been suffering,” Nickolai said. “It’s a very seasonal area and city-folk are starved for access to our natural surroundings”.

She said the train will allow people from New York City to be able to come to the Upper Delaware valley, especially now that more people are buying homes in the area.

“It would be an enormous boost for the economy in the river corridor, and the bonus would be that our residents could easily get into the city or take the train to nearby towns for recreation and shopping” Nickolai said.

While still in the exploratory stages, the expectation is to connect with the current track that is used for freight train service, which runs through once a day at night.

Nickolai said they would use existing equipment, which would cut down on costs, and they are researching prices of platforms that would need to be installed.

The Catskill Explorer team has reached out to both State Senator Mike Martucci and Congressman Antonio Delgado.

“There is much needed funding available, on the state and federal levels,” Nickolai said.

The multi-county project includes Sullivan, Orange and Delaware counties and the group has been gathering letters of support.

For Callicoon, the Catskill Explorer will tie into the Train Depot project, which is in the process of being transformed into the Upper Delaware Scenic Byway Visitor Center.

Nickolai concluded, “It’s these types of public private partnerships that create sustainable development; we are very excited to see this through”.

For more information, visit www.catskillexplorer.org