Rail Trail e-Newsletter March, 2024 #86

Hello all,

Sorry for the delay again. Busy in all realms still. We've been pulling together this e-newsletter now for about 7 years. It regularly has over 15,000 readers and Constant Contact has noted it as being in the top 10% of all their e-newsletters world wide in terms of reader engagement. You all love it.

The strange thing is that I've never asked you for a dime. However today I will be. There is news of a Go Fund Me page for Steven Hawk who needs a new wheelchair van that will allow him to attend the mundane evening meetings that will allow the MCRT to move forward. Please do give to this. It is important.

We also have news of our mapping effort on the MCRT to get it listed on Google StreetMaps. In a few weeks, we'll have the entire corridor on there. All the open sections as a Google StreetMap and all the gaps covered by a drone fly-by.

And more coming so stay tuned.

best,

Craig Della Penna, Board President

Norwottuck Network, Inc.

62 Chestnut St. Northampton, MA 01062

413 575 2277 Craig@MassCentralRailTrail.org

In the GREEN area, we have news about the

Mass Central Rail Trail

and perhaps some of the 18 other trails that connect to it.

All readers of this e-newsletter should be donating to this Go Fund Me. The number of people getting this free e-newsletter can put this over the top.

A Go-Fund-Me that needs your support

One of the lead advocates for the MCRT is Steven Hawk. Injured in a car crash 20+ years ago, he is in a wheelchair. He has a dramatic track record of success in moving the town of Ware forward on the idea of and betterments of the trail. However he needs a new wheelchair van in order to effectively continue his advocacy. Please help by donating. LINK HERE to donate.

For the past couple of weeks, we've been granted access to a genuine GOOGLE STREETMAP camera and we are not only documenting the entire MCRT corridor, but also some of the 18 intersecting trails. This has been funded thanks to a grant from the Solomon Foundation. This is going to be an amazing game-changer.

Top pic – Herb Nolan of the Solomon Foundation, Glenn Pransky and Danny Noenickx Board Members of Norwottuck Network (NN).

Middle – Rob Kusner, Glenn Pransky and Elizabeth Johnson, all NN Board members.

Bottom – Jeff Rosenblum of Toole Design's Boston office and trainer on the use of the Google StreetMaps Camera, along with Ben Bayes, Glenn Pransky and Danny Noenickx, NN Board members. Go Team!

This scalable map will be living and accessible on Google Street Maps in a few weeks. Stay tuned. The pix to the left have several Norwottuck Network Board members along with a Google camera expert and the trailer borne Google Street Map camera.

Next Phase of Bruce Freeman Rail Trail Could Happen Fast Sudbury Weekly By Kevin Lahaise 3-3-24

Sudbury Select Board voted to submit a letter of support to get the next phase of the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail on the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) for the 2025-2029 cycle with the Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO).

The letter from the Select Board notes:

This project represents the final section of trail in the Town of Sudbury and completes 20 miles of the 25-mile rail trail envisioned many years ago by Rep. Bruce Freeman of Chelmsford. Read more

MORE HAPPENINGS ON THE DEVELOPING MCRT IN THE METRO WEST AREA IN BOTH WALTHAM AND BELMONT.

Help Maintain Waltham's Trails and Parks. Join volunteer trail stewards of the Waltham Land Trust to serve as the "eyes and ears" of our shared open space! Waltham Patch Sonja Wadman, Community Contributor 3-27-24

The Waltham Land Trust is currently recruiting volunteers to assist with maintaining select trails and parks in Waltham. On Saturday, April 13, the group is hoping to train a total of about twenty-five volunteers who will essentially serve as the "eyes and ears" of the Western Greenway Trail, Hardy Pond, Wellington Fields, and the soon-to-be Mass Central Rail Trail. To sign-up and read more.

Here's the official 25% design hearing led by MassDOT for Belmont's Phase 1 section of the MCRT. Click here to go the official video. Only 24+ years in the making. It is worth the view.

And here's a nice write-up of a meeting in Belmont that was the lead-up to the 25% design hearing.

This article was in the Belmont Citizen's Forum. Read more

Communities on the

on the MCRT and their websites

Did you know that many communities (or groups like land trusts) on the MCRT alignment are working on their section of the trail?

Here's a link to a two-page infographic about the history of the MCRT

Here's a link to the report that answers the main question. "What would a completed MCRT mean to the Commonwealth and the communities along the way."

Here are links to websites where you can learn who the contact person is, when these groups meet, when hearings are being planned and how to sign up to get notices sent directly to you.

Belmont: Link here to the town appointed committee.

Belmont: Link here to the Belmont Citizens Forum.

Belmont: Link here to the Friends of the Community Path Facebook group.

Somerville: Link here to the Friends of the Community Path Facebook group.

Waltham: Link here to the Waltham Land Trust's site.

Waltham: Link here to the Waltham Bike Committee.

Waltham: Link here to the City's page about the MCRT.

Weston: Link here to the town's page about the MCRT

Weston: Link here to the history of both the RR and the advocacy to create the trail. Over 25 years of advocacy. It is now open.

Wayland: Link here.

Sudbury: Link here for the N-S intersecting trail--Bruce Freeman Rail Trail.

Berlin-Hudson: Link here to the new FaceBook group.

Friends of the Berlin Rail Trail. newly stood up in 2023. Link here.

Berlin: Link here goes to the town's Rail Trail Committee. They also have a pretty nice website with pictures of the existing dead RR corridor along other maps and images of a future trail. Link here.

Wayside segment of the MCRT: Link here to a regularly updated history of DCR's efforts on building out this complicated trail.

Clinton Greenway Conservation Trust: Link here. updated info.

Clinton Tunnel: Link here to a story on WBZ Boston TV about the tunnel. And link here to a more recent story on MassLive about tunnel and efforts to restore it.

Wachusett Greenways section in the center of the state: Link here.

Wachusett Greenways Facebook page with a link to their E-newsletter: Link here.

East Quabbin Land Trust: Link here.

Palmer coming soon

Ware: Link here to the Facebook group about this segment of the MCRT'.

Belchertown: Link for the site for Friends of the Belchertown Greenway.

Amherst, Hadley on DCR's Norwottuck section of the MCRT: Link here.

Northampton area: Link here to the Friends of Northampton Trails website.

Northampton area: Link here to the Friends of Northampton Trails Facebook.

Here's DOT's Feasibility study about how to piece together the middle sections of the MCRT.

And here's the report that describes what a completed MCRT will mean to the Commonwealth and the communities along the way.

AND IN THE WHITE AREA,

OTHER NEWS AROUND THE REGION

New Haven to create new trail connecting Farmington Canal Line and East Coast Greenway Lily Belle Poling, Staff Reporter, Yale Daily News 3-4-24. On Thursday, Feb. 29, city officials presented their plans for the New Haven Shoreline Greenway Trail, which will connect the Farmington Canal Line to the East Coast Shoreline Greenway. Read more.

Here's something of note. In a recent construction trade magazine is a story about a newly developed porous or permeable pavement that provides an interesting improvement in developing trails with a permeable surface near to water resources like reservoirs.

The article is by Thomas Baird of Barton & Loguidice who designed the rail trail next to the Ashokan Reservoir in NY. Read the article.

$117 million federal grant boosts Queens Way Project: A 3.5-mile greenway connecting six neighborhoods in NYC By Bill Parry

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer and members of the Queens Congressional delegation announced a $117 million federal grant for the QueensWay project’s Forest Park Pass section, which includes 9 acres stretching from Union Turnpike through Forest Park to Park Lane South. The full QueensWay project will be a 3.5-mile, 47-acre linear park that transforms a stretch of abandoned railway into green space, as well as a transportation corridor featuring pedestrian and bike-friendly paths that connect six neighborhoods from Forest Hills to Ozone Park. The project will provide safe alternative routes to twelve schools, seven subway lines, and one commuter line (LIRR), along with local businesses. Read more And another story about this.

Bike lanes are good for business

Study after study proves it. So why do so many shops and restaurants still oppose better streets? Business Insider Adam Rogers Mar 7, 2024

Businesses hate bike lanes. Sure, they reduce pollution, slow the pace of climate change, cut traffic fatalities, and make cities healthier and more pleasant. But they also take away parking spaces, which makes it tougher for shoppers to load up their cars with piles of stuff. Freaked-out business owners have been fighting bike lanes coast to coast, in cities from San Diego to Cambridge, Massachusetts. They worry — not unreasonably — that anything that makes it harder for customers to get to their stops will eat into their already precarious margins. Read more.

AND IN THE ORANGE AREA;

Interesting, "HIGH ALTITUDE" Stories From Around the Country and Sometimes Beyond.

How the Netherlands Built a Successful Bike Infrastructure

By: Miovision Team | Feb 02, 2024. Read more (This is an interesting story, but remember, within 150 miles of Florence, MA lies the densest network of dead steam RR corridor in the U.S. When the conversion here is done, we'll be more like the Netherlands than the Netherlands is today. CDP)

Meet the Retirees Cycling Into Their Golden Years BY ERIN GIFFORD March 15, 2024 Conde' Nast Traveler

Morag Mottram, 67, and her husband Jim, 69, of Alberta, Canada had no plans to retire in South Florida and fill their days with bridge and pickleball. Read more (Geez, this sounds a lot like my NN Board Member Glenn Pransky and his wife Terry in the pix below. This is on the MCRT in Hardwick and it the last Pony Truss RR Bridge still standing in southern New England. CDP)

BROUGHT TO YOU BY

The new Norwottuck Network is a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation specifically set up to help get the longest rail trail in New England--the Mass Central Rail Trail --built-out, operational and notable.

We can help do that by making small, mini-grants available to local groups and communities that will bring restore/renovate/replace historic mile-markers on the corridor. Or help fund kiosks that will call out forgotten railroad or industrial history of that locale.

Or if and when we need to, (or are asked to) we will commission major reports to answer the "elephant in the room" questions, never asked.

We will want to work with the state park agency Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) on standardized kiosk designs.

We will keep you all posted as to developments as we go. We have made it easy to DONATE through the Network for Good.

Here's some of the Podcasts

I've been on.

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CLICK ON THE IMAGE ABOVE TO SEE THE NOTIFICATION LETTER.

Phone: 413-575-2277 or Email Me

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