Posts

Showing posts from February, 2009

Active rail with active trail!

Image
Rail-with-Trail? Do these really exist? Yes they do and here are photos of two of them. The first is in Cumberland, MD and the other is in Maine. Both of these "rails" are occasional and moderate speed tourist trains and neither has any barrier to separate the trail from the rail. We have members who have ridden alongside rails with frequent, fast-moving freight traffic, and even faster passenger trains, all safely separated from the rails. There are more than 150 such rails-with- trails nationwide. So, what's the secret for getting them built? Actually there are two: first, effective barriers that make both cyclist and rail employees feel safer and, second, there exists legislation limiting liability for accidents along the shared right-of-way. Maybe a third one would be a railroad with strong community-oriented goals willing to work with a trail building organization like ours. We will need all these secrets in our bag as we get busy creating our rail-with-trail