After 190 years, NY's Erie Canal a relic with a hefty cost

AP ^ | August 9, 2015 | George M. Walsh

[george76]

With little income generated by the canals themselves — recreational revenue is about $165,000 a year, commercial only $40,000 — the cost of operating them is now covered largely with highway tolls collected by the Thruway Authority. And the roughly $55 million operating budget for the canals accounted for a large chunk of the $78.5 million in losses the authority reported during the 2014 fiscal year. On top of that are annual capital investments in the tens of millions of dollars to maintain and improve the system.

The burden falls largely on highway toll-payers because of a decision in 1992 to shift control of the canals from the transportation department to the Thruway Authority.

...

A federal court ruled this past week that a suit filed by trucking industry interests should be reinstated. The suit argues the use of tolls to subsidize the canal system is unfair. If the Thruway Authority loses, the state will have to come up with another way to fund the canals because New York is bound by its constitution to maintain it.

[PGR88]

As long as the State has the control and rights-of-way for the Erie Canal, it will continue to generate no revenue whatsoever.

[ifinnegan]

Thanks for posting this.

Remember the Erie Canal song?

I’ve never seen the Erie Canal. Can they turn it in to a trucks only highway?

[george76]

Richard Katskee, a lawyer representing the trucking companies, said his clients plan to seek an injunction to halt excess tolls and refunds dating to November 2010.

Anyone who drives a car or truck knows our roads are crumbling,” he said in an interview. “Toll money should be used to fix roads.”

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/04/new-york-tolls-lawsuit-idUSL1N10F22M20150804

[Pining_4_TX]

Let me guess.. it’s still a source for union jobs, right?

[Lurker]

Of course it is. Look up the origin of a teamster.

[RightGeek]

What about bike paths and light rail? NY doesn’t spend any highway money on those, right?

[mrsmith]

The Erie Canal won the civil war.
It should be preserved as a war monument.

[Sacajaweau]

The Town should be paying the costs of the canal. They are the benefactors.

[Safetgiver]

“Toll money should be used to fix roads.”....I TOTALLY agree. No more funding AMtrack, Public Transportation, bike paths or hiking trails. How about handicap cut outs at intersections? We were told our town would receive ‘X’ amount of money in our budget for fixing streets. The whole town is in turmoil over making cutouts. We don’t have that many disabled people in the outskirts of our town. However, not one cent has been spent on the streets, which is like the cow pasture road I rode over in my Dad’s tractor.

[cripplecreek]

In the 1800s canals made economic sense. There were even multiple plans to dig a canal across southern Michigan from Lake Erie to Lake Michigan.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I’d like to sail down the Erie Canal from Lake Erie just to see and feel the age of this creation. I’d pick a nice 52 foot Sea Ray with an experienced captain, my wife and a few friends...

[george76]

The politicians always have the hands in diverting our tax dollars to their schemes.

High speed rail , commuter trains , new office buildings, union Davis-Bacon and related programs : suck up highway gasoline taxes that should be used to build & maintain bridges and roads.

[pfony1]

You asked if the Erie Canal can be turned into a “highway”.

It would be much cheaper and quicker if Obama, using his power as America’s most powerful “word-smith”, simply re-defined “The New York Thruway” as “The Erie Canal”.

Then the former “Erie Canal” could be abandoned.

[oh8eleven]

the cost of operating them is now covered largely with highway tolls collected by the Thruway
Tolls that were supposed to cease in 1996 when the bonds were paid off. But NY didn't want to lose control of the Thruway (and canal) by accepting federal highway funds.
My ggg-grandfather, an Irish immigrant, was a boatman on the Erie Canal before he enlisted in the army in 1863.

[mrsmith]

Indeed!
George Washington invested in canals to take the produce of the Northwest Territories to Virginia ports. But the establishment slave-holders didn’t see any need for canals since it wouldn’t benefit them so nothing came of it.
Would have never been a civil war if they had. The South would have been able to compete economically.
Socialism ruins everything.

[george76]

The politicians steal our gasoline & diesel tax revenue to build bike paths , etc. - then cry that they need more tax money.

[dila813]

They should return it to private groups to maintain them as public waterways maintained by private groups.

[ifinnegan]

I’m not knowledgeable enough to understand your comment.

[P.O.E.]

Remember the Erie Canal song?