Update May 16, 2022 – Castleton had a rally to restore access to its Riverfront Park.
Update March 22, 2021 -Assemblymember Didi Barrett wrote a letter to the Department of State supporting the supervisor’s request for the DOS to create a regional shoreline access plan.
Update March 16, 2021- Nine regional elected officials asked the NYS Department of State to create a regional shoreline access plan to “help us coordinate our public access goals, improving river access while at the same time reducing the risk of danger along the Empire Corridor’s Hudson Line.”
Update January 4th 2021 – There is an insightful new article in The Other Hudson Valley by Roger Hannigan Gilson that provides an update on Amtrak’s plans: Amtrak’s Secret Plan to Fence Off Parts of Hudson River. The article includes a link to Scenic Hudson’s Hudson River Access Plan, which has been available on this site since its release in March 2020. Much more significantly, the article includes Amtrak’s Five Year Fencing Plan, which had not been previously available. The plan is a 45 page presentation with detailed charts and maps, and is generally much more restrictive and comprehensive than their first plan in 2018. They have taken the public comments and criticisms of their first plan, and doubled down on every negative element.
Update Aug 12, 2020 – Columbia County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution supporting a state sponsored regional plan to build on Scenic Hudson’s Hudson River Access Plan. On Sept 8th the county’s resolution was adopted by Germantown.
Update July 21, 2020 – In response to the letters from local Congress members Tonko, Maloney and Delgado (mentioned below), Amtrak had a virtual meeting with local supervisors on July 16th. The meeting was attended by six area supervisors, DOT representatives, Scenic Hudson, and Amtrak. Representatives of Tonko, Maloney and Delgado were not present, and the NYS Dept of State was not represented. The main takeaway from the meeting is that Amtrak remains committed to installation of gates and fences in our area, although it has made some revisions to the original plan, and implementation is a year to a year and a half away.
Update June 6, 2020 – Congress members Paul D. Tonko, Sean P. Maloney and Antonio R. Delgado have written to Amtrak CEO William Flynn about shoreline access.
Update March 26, 2020 – Scenic Hudson has just released the Hudson River Access Plan. The press release is here and the plan and appendices are here.
Update February 17, 2020 – The Columbia County Board of Supervisors wrote a letter to Scenic Hudson supporting their initiative to document places where people connect with the Hudson River.
Update Jan 24, 2020 – There is one week left to help Scenic Hudson document local shoreline access in order to create a Hudson River Shoreline Access Plan. Here is the email we just sent to all our subscribers . Use the map, and document our shoreline. Update – map input is closed, we’ll continue to follow this initiative.
Update 12/31/2019 – The town of Germantown has been awarded a NY Department of State grant to create a Local Waterfront Revitalization Program. Press release.
Update 12/25/2019 – Scenic Hudson is planning to hold community meetings to document places where people connect with the river. This will help the Department of State understand the full implications of Amtrak’s attempts to reduce shoreline access. The Germantown meeting will be Sat. Jan 4th at the Kellner Activites Center at 10:30am. There are also community meetings in Castleton-on-Hudson and Rhinebeck. Please attend one of the three meetings and provide input for this important study. For more information check out the project’s web site.
Update 10/21/2019 – Assemblymember Didi Barret wrote a letter to Ron Epstein, Executive Deputy Commissioner, NYS Department of Transportation, strongly objecting to the installation of gates to reduce access to the Hudson River shoreline.
Update 7/9/2019 – A meeting was held in Hudson, including Matt Murell, Chairman of the Board of the Columbia County Board of Supervisors, Robert Beaury, Germantown Supervisor, Jeff Anzevino of Scenic Hudson, and officials from Amtrak. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss Amtrak’s plan for fences and gates in the Empire Corridor in Columbia and Dutchess counties. Amtrak displayed some flexibility with regard to considering fence styles and sizes. Amtrak also agreed to hold meetings for public input, and there will meetings between elected officials and NY state agencies. Amtrak doesn’t expect work to commence prior to 2020.
Update 6/14/2019 – A meeting between NY Department of State, NY Department of Transportation and local elected officials scheduled for June 14 was canceled at the last minute by the state officials. The meeting was going to focus on Amtrak’s plans to install fences and gates along the Hudson River corridor in Stuyvesant, Stockport and Germantown, with an emphasis on alternatives that would balance access to the waterfront and safety along the tracks. Germantown Supervisor Rob Beaury noted that despite Amtrak’s press release on January 18, 2019 pledging to work with towns “along the corridor in an effort to formulate the appropriate plan,” it has not indicated a willingness to meet with local officials to achieve that goal.
Update 4/29/2019 – The New York Department of Transportation has reached out to Germantown Supervisor Robert Beaury to schedule public meetings on a revised Amtrak plan to install gates and fences. Very little else is known, but we will keep you informed as we find out more.
Brief Summary (3/2018 through 1/2019)
In early March of
Amtrak has stated that the plan is being revised and that they will continue to work with the affected communities.
All of the key documents can be found on this site, using the menus and sidebar links, together with a detailed narrative of the events starting in March of 2018 up to withdrawal of the plan in January of 2018. Events after Jan. 2018 are described on this (home) page.