New York’s Catskill Mountain Railroad saw its ridership increase by 17.5 percent last year for a total of 60,653 passengers in 2024.

Launched in 1982 to lease and operate a 38-mile former New York Central branch line, Catskill Mountain Railroad currently operates a five-mile route based out of Kingston, N.Y.

The increase in ridership comes as the tourist railroad faces a new threat to its existence. Recently, two area groups, the Woodstock Land Conservancy and Friends of the Catskill Mountain Rail Trail, began advocating to replace the county-owned rail line with a trail. For many years, the tourist railroad has fought efforts to turn the former NYC route into a trail. While in recent years, the railroad has been able to work with different trail groups and the county successfully, this new effort is marked by a desire to remove the rail line completely. —Justin Franz