Efforts to preserve the Cut-Off began almost immediately upon the route’s closing. Initially, there was a plan for New Jersey to run a train between Hoboken and Scranton, but the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) nixed the plan for reasons that are unclear to this day. Not taking “no” for an answer, New Jersey officials approached Amtrak with the same proposal. Since Amtrak had rights to run anywhere in the US, PennDOT had no say in the matter, and in November 1979, Amtrak operated an inspection train between Hoboken and Scranton to investigate intercity rail service between the two cities. Dubbed the “Pocono Mountain Special”, the train left Hoboken and ran west on the Morristown Line on November 13, 1979, reaching Port Morris shortly after 9 a.m. With the main line severed at Port Morris Junction, the special train ran been run backwards from Denville and was detoured through Port Morris Yard via Port Morris Wye to turn it around, before rolling onto the Cut-Off. (Conrail had turned over some rail at Port Morris Junction and had refused to replace the rail when requested in order for the special to run.) In spite of this inconvenience, the train ran to Scranton, where it was met by a group of dignitaries. It would be the last passenger train in the Twentieth Century—and the only Amtrak train thus far—to operate over the entire route. The idea of Hoboken–Scranton service faded as Amtrak faced funding shortfalls and the need for significant track and station repairs in order to run passenger service on the line.
The 133-mile (214 km) inspection trip marked the end of one era, and the beginning of another: a 40-plus-year effort to save and reactivate the Cut-Off. In the beginning, finding an operator for the line was less pressing than preserving the track and right-of-way itself. Several attempts were made to purchase the line from Conrail, which was concerned that a competitor might try to restore freight service on the route. The Sussex County Freeholder Board in New Jersey pursued such a purchase.
The Monroe County Railroad Authority in Pennsylvania also got involved, and nearly reached a deal to buy the 88-mile (142 km) section of track between Port Morris and Scranton for $6.5 million. The railroad authority would have borrowed $4.1 million from the federal government at 3.25 percent per annum and issued bonds to cover the rest of the purchase price plus additional unspecified costs to restore the line. The deal would have allowed Conrail to remove about 40 miles (64 km) of track with an option for Pennsylvania, through PennDOT, to purchase the second track to Moscow, Pennsylvania, for operations out of Scranton’s Steamtown National Historic Site. The agreement stipulated that the railroad operator would repay the loan from operational revenue.
In spite of initial optimism, the deal began to fall apart, and on August 10, 1983, the U.S. Department of Transportation informed Monroe County officials that the federal loan guarantee had been revoked and would instead go to the financially ailing Detroit & Mackinac Railway in Michigan, suggesting behind-the-scenes political meddling by Conrail had taken place. Monroe County officials continued to press their case, hoping that Congress would provide financial support; the railroad authority invited 16 potential operators to submit proposals, and seven did so on August 26, 1983. Meanwhile, the federal regulations surrounding the abandonment of railroad lines changed; instead of a lengthy regulatory process that had discouraged railroads from abandoning unwanted routes, the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) would be allowed to approve the abandonment of any track if it were not in service and had no originating or terminating shipments for two years, and was not required to serve any other track. This allowed Conrail to abandon the Cut-Off almost immediately, as it was no secret that it had been actively chasing customers off the line long before freight service has ended. Atlantic City gambling interests also opposed restoring rail service over the Cut-Off, fearing renewed passenger service would provide a “Gambler’s Express” to casinos in the Poconos that might compete with the nascent casinos of the Jersey Shore. (Casinos would eventually come to the Poconos, but 30 years later, long after Atlantic City’s East Coast “monopoly” on casinos, and its outsized political influence, had ended.) A New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) priority list of rail projects at the time of abandonment listed the Cut-Off as Number 26 in a list of unfunded capital projects. The outlook was bleak.
In spite of this, the Monroe County Railroad Authority pressed on and continued to fight Conrail, with support from PennDOT and the bizarre threat from a private citizen to roll out his World War II tank to block any Conrail rail-removal train. Conrail eventually relented and agreed not to sever the line between Slateford and Scranton.
But, with all regulatory and political hurdles removed in New Jersey, Conrail was free to begin lifting track on the New Jersey side of the Delaware River Viaduct starting on June 8, 1984. Even as this was taking place, Morris County (NJ) Transportation Department Director Frank Reilly made last-ditch attempts to delay track removal in New Jersey. In addition, the dismantling was hampered somewhat by several individuals who, on weekends, replaced railroad spikes removed by the rail-removal crews during the week. Unfortunately, these last-ditch efforts had no lasting effect, as the last mainline trackage was removed from the Cut-Off at Port Morris on October 5, 1984. Wooden ties and rock ballast were left in place, however.
With track removal complete, the 27 miles (43 km) of right-of-way west of County Road 602 (Brooklyn-Stanhope Road) in Hopatcong, New Jersey, was sold to Jerry Turco, a developer based in Kearny, New Jersey, in 1986. Mr. Turco said that he originally had no intention of purchasing the Cut-Off, but rather had learned of its availability from Conrail after he inquired about a 1,000-foot (300 m) section of the Lehigh & Hudson River Railway (L&HR) in Andover, an abandoned line that Conrail also owned. Turco claimed that he wanted to acquire the short section so that he could expand a nursing home operation that abutted the railbed. Conrail refused to sell the isolated Andover parcel, but offered to sell it if Turco would acquire all of the L&HR right-of-way from to Belvidere, a total of 32 miles (51 km). Turco said that it was during this time that Conrail also offered the Cut-Off to him, which crosses the L&HR on the Pequest Fill near Tranquility, New Jersey, to create a “package deal” of rail rights-of-way.
Turco eventually accepted the deal to purchase both rail lines, acquiring nearly 60 miles (97 km) of right-of-way for roughly $2 million. Shortly thereafter, Conrail sold the remaining 1.5 mile (2.4 km) parcel east of Sussex County Road 602 to developer Burton Goldmeier of Hopatcong, who reportedly wanted to use that section of the Cut-Off as an access road to a proposed housing development. (In 1988, Conrail removed the tracks from the L&HR.)
SAVING THE CUT-OFF (1986–2009)
With the tracks gone and the right-of-way sold to two different land developers, it didn’t seem that things could get any worse for the Cut-Off; but they did. Turco announced plans to remove fill material from the Pequest Fill and other large Cut-Off fills for the Westway Project (or other projects requiring large amounts of fill material) in New York City, and then dump garbage and construction materials into the large cuts. (The Westway Project, as originally proposed, would have required large amounts of fill material, but was abandoned in September 1985. In theory, later projects in Downtown Manhattan might have also provided Turco with a market for “his” fill, but by that time the tide was turning against the proposal.) As such, it was never entirely clear how serious Turco was about his proposed Rebar Landfill or if this was simply a ploy to stir up public opposition and force the New Jersey state government to step in and acquire the Cut-Off by condemnation. Either way, the controversial proposal helped galvanize support for preserving the Cut-Off via a $25 million state bond issue for acquiring abandoned railroad rights-of-way that was placed on the ballot in New Jersey in November 1989.
Voters overwhelmingly approved the bond issue (known as the Bond Act of 1989) and subsequently NJDOT instituted eminent domain proceedings against the corporations that Turco and Goldmeier had established in New Jersey for the Cut-Off.
For liability purposes, Turco had established separate corporations for the parcels of right-of-way in each municipality that his section of the Cut-Off ran through: Knowlton, Blairstown and Frelinghuysen townships in Warren County; Green, Byram, and Andover townships and Stanhope and Andover boroughs in Sussex County. In addition, separate corporations had been set up for the Paulinskill Viaduct and the Delaware River Viaduct, as well as for the 1.4 miles (2.3 km) of right-of-way in Pennsylvania which was later acquired by Pennsylvania’s Monroe County Railroad Authority. In addition to these corporations, Turco created holding companies to oversee these other corporations: Sussex & Warren Holding Company, Inc. and OLC, Inc., (OLC, Old Lackawanna Cut-Off).
On the other hand, Goldmeier’s 1.5-mile (2.4 km) section of right-of-way, which passed through short sections of Roxbury Township (Port Morris and Landing) in Morris County and Hopatcong Borough and Byram Township in Sussex County, was held as one parcel.
It would take twelve long years, but by 2001, New Jersey and Pennsylvania had acquired their respective portions of the Cut-Off for a total of $21 million. With the right-of-way now in public hands, the door was open to public funding of future rail service.
In 2003, U.S. Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) secured initial funding for the restoration of passenger rail service between Scranton and New York City.
In July 2006, the final environmental review was submitted to the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) for review and approval. The following February, the Lackawanna County and Monroe County Railroad Authorities were merged to form the Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Railroad Authority (PNRRA). One of the objectives of the new rail authority was to help expedite the effort to restore passenger service on the Scranton Corridor.
In December 2008, U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) sent a letter to Amtrak president, Joseph Boardman, expressing his support for Amtrak service between Scranton and Binghamton, New York.
In April 2009, U.S. Senators Arlen Specter and Bob Casey, Jr. (D-PA) sent a joint letter to President Barack Obama, seeking support for Amtrak service between the two cities. They also cited an Amtrak feasibility study on the subject.