Last month, the Little Engine That Could became the Little Engine That Won’t.
Now, it’s the Little Engine That Might.
The Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway, the beloved excursion train out of Jim Thorpe, was supposed to stop running Nov. 25, a casualty of a dispute between the borough and the train operator. But the parties are talking again, and while the train may stop running Monday as promised, it could reopen in the new year.
The borough maintained the railway owed $95,000 in unpaid amusement tax from 2016-18 and sued to collect. The operator — the Reading, Blue Mountain & Northern Railroad — said it owed no such thing, because the train was an educational service, not an amusement.
Efforts to reach an agreement sputtered, and in October RBMN said it would shut down the service. In a statement at the time, RBMN owner Andy Muller Jr. said the borough had acted in bad faith by targeting the 15-year-old attraction.
“I have offered passenger excursion rides to local communities as a way of thanking them for their support over the years and to educate young and old in the glorious role railroads in this region played in our country’s industrial revolution,” he said.
Mayor Michael Sofranko, however, dismissed the idea that the train is not an amusement, because it offers round-trip scenic excursions, not station-to-station travel.
Last week, however, the borough quietly dropped the lawsuit. Council President Greg Strubinger told the Lehighton Times-News that the borough is once again in talks with RBMN, though it retains the option of refiling the suit if talks don’t progress in 2020.
“We’ve decided to set the lawsuit aside so that we don’t have constraints on continuing discussions to reach an amicable solution,” Jim Thorpe Borough Council President Greg Strubinger told The Morning Call on Thursday. “There’s a lot of interest in this situation. The livelihoods of our local businesses revolve around downtown customer traffic, which the railway’s passenger excursion rides play a key role in attracting.”
The amusement tax supports the borough’s police and other public services, Strubinger said.
RBMN did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.
Michael Rivkin, head of the Jim Thorpe Tourism Board, said the thaw is good news for the Carbon County borough.
“We’re very excited and we applaud the borough for making a good faith concession,” said Rivkin, who owns the Parsonage Bed & Breakfast on Broadway.
The railway carries passengers in vintage coaches on a scenic trip along the Lehigh River through Glen Onoko and into the Lehigh Gorge State Park. It is especially popular as the fall foliage turns and in the Christmas season when it offers “Santa rides.”
Rivkin said he hopes RBMN will change its mind about ending the service and continue excursions through the holiday season, one of the high points of the year.
The railway “is a main draw” to the tourism-dependent borough, he said.
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Morning Call reporter Daniel Patrick Sheehan can be reached at 610-820-6598 or dsheehan@mcall.com