Tired of putting her bicycle in her truck and driving to a Windham, N.H., rail trail, Methuen resident Joyce Godsey set out to advocate for a better place to ride in her own community.

For the past two years, Godsey has been spearheading the effort to convert a 2.5-mile stretch of Methuen’s abandoned railroad tracks into a rail trail. It’s possible, she said, that Methuen could have a completed rail trail by next year — at little to no cost.
“We’re lucky because we’re very uncomplicated. We don’t have residential abutters*,’’ said Godsey, who formed and heads the Methuen Rail Trail Alliance. “Methuen the city can’t afford [a rail trail conversion]. A lot of the funding comes from grants and donations. Engineering studies alone are upwards of $20,000. We don’t have the physical complexity of other people’s trails.’’
While most rail-to-trail projects can linger in the costly planning and design process for a decade, Godsey has placed Methuen’s on the fast track by accepting an offer she could not refuse — having the railroad tracks and ties removed, disposed of, and replaced with a crushed-stone surface for free by Iron Horse Preservation Society, a Reno, Nev., nonprofit. “They basically come in, take out the rail stock and in essence, they give you a rail trail,’’ Godsey said.
Since arriving in Massachusetts a few months ago to work with a group leading a rail trail project in Danvers, Joe Hattrup, Iron Horse Preservation director, said he has found the state’s process for converting rails to trails unnecessarily complicated. Creating rail trails in Massachusetts, he said, does not have to be so difficult.
“The thing that’s really sad is [communities] have been trying to get these [trails] together for, in some cases, in excess of 15 years, and it’s ridiculous,’’ Hattrup said. “Some of the cities were paying huge amounts of money, six digits, a quarter-million dollars, for these designs . . . and then you don’t have anything yet but a road map to look for more money. They do all these feasibility studies that by the time it’s done, by the time you finish your studies, it’s 10 years later and it’s not even relevant anymore.’’
This is Hattrup’s first business trip to the “east side of the Mississippi,’’ but he’s been removing old railroad tracks for the past 18 years. Five years ago, he formed Iron Horse Preservation, an organization focused not just on removing old railroad material, but on leaving behind a completed crushed-stone surface rail trail, at no cost to anyone. The 18-employee organization makes its money from the sale of the railroad material, and makes sure that none of it ends up in a landfill, Hattrup said.
This turnkey, no-cost product, which Hattrup calls “unique,’’ has quickly caught the attention of area communities in various stages of rail trail projects, as well as that of state transportation officials, some of whom have been meeting with Hattrup to further discuss his method.
The meetings may serve as an indicator of the willingness of transportation officials to move away from the state’s reputation for heavily favoring highway transit projects over bike and pedestrian projects.
According to a study released in May by the National Transportation Enhancements Clearinghouse, Massachusetts ranked last in the nation in allocating federal funds designated for bike and pedestrian projects.
According to the study, from fiscal years 1992 through 2009, Massachusetts was eligible for $151 million in funds, but only allocated $62 million, or 41 percent. That is an improvement over last year’s study, which indicated that until that point the state had only distributed about 37 percent of those funds.

This problem was pointed out 10 years ago, said Tom Michelman, president of the Friends of the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail, a proposed path that would go from Lowell to Framingham. The state Department of Transportation is not in charge of allocating federal funds for bike and pedestrian projects. That job goes to regional planning organizations, he said. For instance, federal funding for the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail, which has been in the works since 1989, is controlled by the Boston Regional Metropolitan Planning Organization.

“Massachusetts, unlike other states, generally puts the onus of paying for preliminary design, feasibility studies, and design onto the towns, onto the municipalities that are promoting the project,’’ Michelman said. “But there’s no quid pro quo that says if you go through this process that your project will definitely be funded. Municipalities have to enter into this process to some degree by faith.’’
Most rail trail projects are also led by volunteer groups that have to negotiate leases with the rail and land owners, which in many cases are state transportation entities, such as the MBTA, or private companies. The MBTA, for instance, offers 99-year leases to groups like Godsey’s in Methuen for rail trail projects that have been approved by a community.
It costs about $750,000 to design every 5 miles of the Bruce Freeman trail, paid for with donations and federal and state funds, Michelman said. Phase 1, a 6.8-mile stretch from Chelmsford to Westford, was just completed last year. The second phase, 13.1 miles, is in the preliminary design stage with five communities and is not scheduled to be built until 2021 through 2025, Michelman said.
“You get a quality product [in the end]. I’m not saying this is the best way — there are other ways it can be done,’’ Michelman said. “It’s not easy to build a rail trail in Massachusetts. It doesn’t have to be this hard, but changing the process is hard.’’
As word got around of the rail removal work Iron Horse did with the Danvers Rail Trail group, other groups quickly followed. Hattrup said he is working with rail trail groups in Methuen, Topsfield, and Wenham; the Wakefield-Lynnfield rail trail group; and the Bike to the Sea communities of Malden, Saugus, Revere and Lynn, among others. Because the organization does the work at no cost, Hattrup argues, a bidding process is not necessary. It also eliminates the cost for the community of removing creosote-treated railroad ties, which are considered a hazardous material, he said.
“I think we’re going to be in Massachusetts for at least two years. There’s a demand for what we’re trying to do,’’ Hattrup said, adding he understands the skepticism from communities that would essentially get something for nothing. “We’re a cash-flowing nonprofit that doesn’t require handouts, and
it’s a unique idea.’’
Joe Geller, chairman of the Topsfield Rail Trail Committee, has been involved in that project for 18 years and recently brought Iron Horse Preservation into the mix. He said the group is saving money by using the nonprofit and will gain 1.9 miles of trail to the Wenham town line as a result. Geller said he is waiting to see the final product, but he can’t argue with the process so far.
“No one can figure out how they make money,’’ Geller said of Iron Horse. “But you can’t look a gift horse in the mouth, and you may scratch your head, but the bottom line is a trail is coming.’’
*What I actually said was we don’t have very MANY residential abutters. And those we have are very supportive.

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Posted by Mark Navin, Senior Producer, Tuesday, April 21st, 2009

Show airs: 04/24/2009

Bike advocates say that making bicycling more of a transportation option for Boston workers, could be the answer to many of the city’s transportation issues. But just a few years ago, Boston was named by one bike magazine as one of the least “bike-friendly” cities in the country. The mayor and other public officials have been trying to change that perception, and new bike lanes and other infrastructure have gone in, or are being considered. Including a bike sharing program, that would allow people without bikes to get from one place to another by borrowing a bike free or very cheaply. We’re talking about practical biking in Boston this Friday at 1 on Radio Boston. (show archive - the show pod cast link)

from The Boston Globe
By Alan Wirzbicki
April 14, 2009

WASHINGTON – Despite a recent declaration by Governor Deval Patrick that encouraging bicycling is a priority for his administration, Massachusetts ranks last in the nation among all states in requesting federal funds for bike lanes, rail-trails, and similar improvements and has failed to use more than $80 million set aside for the state.

Since 1991, the state has only spent about 37 percent of its share of the funding designated by Congress for such projects, a far lower rate than in any other state, according to federal statistics. By comparison, Connecticut and Rhode Island have spent 99 percent of their federal funding.

Massachusetts has been allocated $135 million for bike and pedestrian funding since 1991, and has used $51.1 million. Critics blame the gap on a cumbersome application process that requires cities and towns to pay for planning and engineering studies, submit applications to two state agencies, and then wait, sometimes for years.

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Windham residents split over restoration of rail. Cost decried, economic benefits touted (read article) by Terry Date

This isn’t even NEW news, just a rehash of last months coverage of the Interstate 93 Transit Investment Study and basically a profile of rail proponent Peter Griffin.

The cost of the train isn’t even correctly estimated, that 200mil are 2008 dollars and doesn’t include any upgrades to infrastructure, like road widening, bridges, stations or parking. If the Express BUS service won’t even be completed for 17 years, can we hazard a guess how long it will take for train service to be completed? 20 years , 30 years? We can still have a nicely walkable trail in less than a year and with proper funding a bikable one in about two.

So, if we pretend that the country is not in an economic crises and isn’t looking at a serious recession to pay for the bailout, the war and the national debt. We will also have to pretend that federal funding won’t be harder to find than a vegan in Texas Roadhouse, we are still looking at 20 plus years of use for property that presently isn’t being enjoyed at all.

excerpt:

” Bicycling the canal, on a dirt towpath where mules once hauled barges, is like riding through a watercolor painting of nature all day long. Spring, summer and deep into fall, it’s like inhaling a passage from “Walden” and exhaling a verse from Robert Frost.

After splashing through the first dozen mud puddles, seeing the first of the turtles lazing on fallen trees in still water, and getting swallowed by the luscious greenery — as if we’d leaped into that painting — I knew we’d found our stride.

The C&O, it turns out, is an ideal proving ground for casual cyclists looking to push their limits. It’s long, flat and traffic-free, plus gorgeous.

Those same qualities engage dedicated cyclists, too, who can stretch the daily mileage if they want and speed a little faster through the same grand tapestry.

And what a tapestry. On one side is the broad, rushing Potomac River; on the other, the placid canal. Above, a canopy of leaves.

Along the way: 74 locks with massive wooden gates patterned on the designs of Leonardo da Vinci, 11 aqueducts and dozens of white brick houses where gatekeepers tended locks and gardens until the canal went bust in 1924.

The human imprint is frozen in time here. Nature is in motion.

Now herons, songbirds, snakes and the ubiquitous turtles make their living on the C&O.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way when people started carving the earth in 1828 to make a waterway for coal and commerce from the Allegheny Mountains to the East Coast.

They reckoned a canal stretching between Chesapeake Bay and the Ohio River would beat the railroad in the race west. The railroad won — and so did the great outdoors.

Today, the C&O joins the recently expanded Great Allegheny Passage rail trail to give cyclists a 320-mile offroad route along sparkling rivers between Washington and the outskirts of Pittsburgh.”

(read article)