Farmington Canal Heritage Trail Makes Great Strides In New Haven

Will the section to Plainville's "Bristol Basin" be opened also?

Can't wait to run on it!

The historic lock in Cheshire is an important piece of history, and it is very moving to consider that the Amistad slaves passed through there on their way to trial.

When it is totally completed if they called it the "New Haven Railroad Trail" that would be really cool.

The Canal is much more historically interesting than the railroad.

Polymeric Foamer wrote:

When it is totally completed if they called it the "New Haven Railroad Trail" that would be really cool.

We can't afford to support basic services to people, but we can "invest" in projects like this.

Sure, it makes one "feel good", but - this should not be the type of expenditure that is high on our list of priorities.

That is, if it should be on the list at all.

Wouldn't it be ironic if they had to reinstall the rails in order to once again move goods and supplies in an efficient manner?

The days of cheap oil are gone forever and with that cheap inefficient truck transportation. The 3000 mile garden salad is about to become very expensive.

Hindsight is always 20/20.

What a one-sided, rosy picture this article presents. New Haven wants to think this is going to be a safe park trail, but New Haven hasn't had a safe park in decades. There was just recently a mugging on the Yale Campus near or on this "trail." How about putting money into making Edgewood Park safe for use before starting new projects? Edgewood already has lovely trails that only an idiot would walk alone.
As for bike-commuting... this is clearly a "feel good", politically charged "cause celebre".... but how many thousands MORE people could have been served with a light rail commuter line through all the towns from New Haven to Northampton? How many low-income families could have had access to reasonably-priced, alternate transportation to and from jobs and colleges/schools in the suburbs and other towns? The Farmington Canal trail is a lovely amenity for the suburbs, but in terms of its importance to the transportation needs and urban fabric of New Haven, it's an awfully expensive and luxurious path for a relatively few young-ish bikers. Is this actually a serious proposal for relieving traffic density along Whitney Ave. or I-91.....really ????
With all the propaganda about this "rail to trail" movement over the years and with everyone getting on the bandwagon to be "green", any alternative viewpoint on this has never even had a legitimate public hearing. Being "green" has a lot more to do with practical, realistic mass-transportation modes rather than with long-distance biking for the VAST majority of people, but who cares about that when the "powers that be" makes decisions and then ram them down everybody's throats?
Some day there will be a serious movement to introduce more rail transport to the dense Northeast, but then everyone will ask, "How do we procure the rights-of-way?" With them all converted to "trails", the only option will be "eminent domain." ..... and you'd better hope it's the other guy's house they take!

Realist wrote:

Some day there will be a serious movement to introduce more rail transport to the dense Northeast, but then everyone will ask, "How do we procure the rights-of-way?" With them all converted to "trails", the only option will be "eminent domain." ..... and you'd better hope it's the other guy's house they take!

I believe (correct me if I'm wrong) is that one of Rails-to-Trails aims is to protect the railroad corridors from development so that if the railroads want to return the corridors will not have been developed. As far as I know, this conversion requires no removal of rail (all the iron has already sadly been scrapped).

The existing section of trail, in New Haven, is already poorly maintained. Just to note, the area of the trail, adjacent to the Pelli building, has a serious drainage problem, after a rain the trail is often covered with mud and water. In addition, the New Haven portion of the trail passes through a dangerous slum, the trail is not plowed in the winter, there is often broken glass on the trail. I doubt anyone would feel safe walking the trail at night or in the evening - nor should they, as people have already been mugged and robbed on it. On the other hand, the trail will probably be good for the local economy, as there will be more Yale students for the local thugs to rob... Suburban towns were all on board with the useless conversion, because their poor land use decisions have made their roads unfit for anything other than driving from one horrible (soon to be abandoned), characterless strip mall to the next.

William III wrote:

<quoted text>
I believe (correct me if I'm wrong) is that one of Rails-to-Trails aims is to protect the railroad corridors from development so that if the railroads want to return the corridors will not have been developed. As far as I know, this conversion requires no removal of rail (all the iron has already sadly been scrapped).

As far as I can recall (and this could be wrong), the only portion that was envisioned as having rails in the future was the New Haven portion. If this ever happens, that would be fine, but that would do nothing to connect people to other towns and suburbs to the north.

Realist wrote:

<quoted text>
As far as I can recall (and this could be wrong), the only portion that was envisioned as having rails in the future was the New Haven portion. If this ever happens, that would be fine, but that would do nothing to connect people to other towns and suburbs to the north.

No... it's going to be a trail for the foreseeable future. Down the line, who knows. Trains might take over in a few decades.

labs wrote:

Wouldn't it be ironic if they had to reinstall the rails in order to once again move goods and supplies in an efficient manner?
The days of cheap oil are gone forever and with that cheap inefficient truck transportation. The 3000 mile garden salad is about to become very expensive.
Hindsight is always 20/20.

Actually, one of the reasons for the Feds getting behind railtrails is that they keep the land available for rail to be relaid in the event of a national emergency, or wartime.

I am a resident of Hamden, and have now biked this trail both north and south. I started out biking the northern section into Cheshire, and was so impressed with how nice it was that I was very excited when I saw that the southern path was being completed. I work at the Yale School of Medicine and figured this would be a nice way to get to work a couple times a week, three seasons a year. So my husband and I decided to try out the southern route a few weekends ago...and we quickly turned right back around once we hit the Hamden/New Haven border. I WOULD have commuted this way...if I thought I would have made it to work alive. What a disappointment and waste of money. You might as well bike down Dixwell Avenue and throw your money to the thugs as you pass in the hopes that they won't do anything worse than rob you. Should have know CT would mess something like this up too...I can't wait to move out of this dump.

My husband and I hiked the entire length of the Farmington Canal trail both ways about 10 years ago. We did it in sections over the span of a spring-summer-fall. It was a fun adventure as well as a challenge as most of the trail was not finished and in many parts we were still walking on railroad ties and gravel. Killed your feet! We got chased by dogs,stumbled over make-shift settlements of migrant workers in the tobacco fields, got cold feet trying to cross the death defiying RR bridge over the Farmington Canal but we eventually made it into Massachusetts. When we heard this past week that the Hamden/New Haven sections had joined, we decided to check it out for ourselves. So we parked on Broadway in New Haven, found the beginning of the finished section of the trail on Lock/Canal Streest and headed north! Our goal was to make it to the section in Hamden where the Merrit crosses over the trail. Walking the nicely paved trail through first New Haven and then Hamden, brought back memories of how the 'trail' looked 10 years ago when we had in places a hard time figuring out where it even was. It was pretty unsavory back then, with homeless people, tons of garbage and buildings that were in terrible shape. What a joy to see the transformation! We had brought lunch and ate it just after crossing the Connolly Parkway in Hamden near the High School. We were struck by how few people were using the trail; other than some bikers the only walkers seemed to be a few people who are using the path to carry groceries. Well we hope that New Haveners and Hamdeners will soon realize what a treasure they have in their back yards! We look forward to other sections of the trail opening one of these days, hope fully soon!