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What is all this about? As you might remember, on October 30, 1999, the Wachusett Greenways held the 1st Golden Spike Conference for the Mass Central Rail-Trail [MCRT] in West Boylston.
In June of 2002, we held an even bigger event called Golden Spike II in Waltham that drew participants from the nearly dozen separate projects underway along the 104-mile long corridor that stretches from Boston to Northampton. The alluring vision of restoring the Mass Central as a rail trail from end to end is finally being seen as a reasonable and achievable goal.
Recently, several long stretches of this corridor have been purchased and protected by either municipalities or land trusts. Another 2-3 miles should become protected by the end of 2008. Additionally, the MBTA is about to transfer to DCR, the 25 mile segment from Waltham to Berlin [This is the RoW of the long ago proposed Wayside Rail Trail]. Together, all this activity seems to point to an iminent 'tipping-point'.
We feel that the, slowly but surely, knitting together of the corridor tied with the recent spate of construction of various rail trails around the state presents an interesting opportunity to do a slightly different -- and even higher altitude -- event.
Instead of another Golden Spike event--specifically tied to the MCRT--we propose to bring together all the leaders of all the rail trails around the state. We think are there are over 75 existing, proposed or embryonic rail trails in Massachusetts. Several volunteers are right now, developing the first comprehensive database.
Such a large number of rail trails in every corner of the state means we might be at that tipping point, where developing an umbrella organization for this unfolding visionary movement might bring some big payoffs.
Don’t forget that with the escalating price of fuel, many more people are biking or everyday activities. Many rail trails around the state are now seeing burgeoning use because of this. Many more people would be biking in a given community if the dead and derelict former railroad corridor were converted into an attractive pathway. Most of the network of existing and proposed and rail trails in this state connect where people live work and play -- thus making the build-out here, much more important than in most other states where the use is primarily recreational.
We think a discussion needs to be held about the idea of creating a state-wide rail trail organization. Things are too fragmented or disjointed and there is no real compelling and clear voice for this issue in the Massachusetts State House. We think this needs to change and we’ll bring forward some ideas on addressing that on September 13.. We hope you or a representative from your group can come and participate in what promises to be a momentous event.
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