NORWICH – The potential demise of rail service through Chenango County has left at least one governmental body frustrated.

Members of the all-volunteer Chenango County Planning & Development Board, who met March 4 at the County Office Building, agreed commerce would be threatened without New York Susquehanna & Western Railroad transportation.

“We’ve got to have a railroad. This area is doomed without it,” said Ken Ryan, a member of the Oxford Planning Board.

NYS&W traffic halted following the June 2006 floods, prompting railroad executives to later begin abandonment procedures. The high cost to afford repairs and restart the service left Chenango County leaders with few alternatives. At least one business venture has been lost due to the lack of rail service in the county.

“We were the first group to point out that the railroad wasn’t running and that something should be done about it. The longer we let the railroad die, the harder it will be to get it back,” Ryan said.

“It doesn’t do anybody any good to have our leaders sitting back and saying nobody is asking for it.”

When Board Chairman Ted Guinn asked Town of Norwich Supervisor David C. Law whether he thought the railroad would run again, Law replied, “Really, my personal feeling, is that it’s a dead duck in the water.”

“What do you do when it’s privately-owned?” Law asked. “They’ve already stripped out the crossing gates.”