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Last Updated: 12 days ago
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Segment
Sudbury to Wayland
Trails
The MCRT Wayside Branch is a partly completed, 23-mile section of the Mass Central Rail Trail designed, built, and maintained by the DCR in partnership with local communities. In 2010, the DCR executed a lease with the MBTA for the corridor, which passes through Waltham, Weston, Wayland, Sudbury, Hudson, and Berlin, and with small pieces in Stow, Bolton and Marlborough.
The MCRT is a partly-complete 104-mile rail trail from Northampton to Boston along the former Mass Central Railroad route. Much of the trail, including the Norwottuck Branch Rail Trail and the Somerville Community Path, have been developed as separate projects but will serve as part of the complete Trail.
Timeline
December 30, 2010
Shortly after the theft of MBTA property in Berlin is discovered, the MBTA agrees to lease it's property, at no cost, to the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR). DCR now has the right to construct a 23 mile State Park between Waltham and Berlin. Securing funding for design and construction will be an ongoing challenge.
The trail name is now: the Mass Central Rail Trail - Wayside, in recognition that the 23 mile Wayside trail is a member of the 104 mile Mass Central Rail Trail.
April 1997
The "Central Massachusetts Rail Trail Feasibility Study" was commissioned by the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, which found construction of a 25-mile (40 km) trail from Berlin to Belmont to be feasible.
The Wayside Rail Trail Committee, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, is formed to advocate for the trail. WRTC President Andrew Greene quickly proposes the "Wayside" Rail Trail name. In Sudbury, the proposed trail is adjacent to the site of the former Wayside Inn Railroad Station, near the historic Wayside Inn, in turn associated with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's classic novel "Tales of the Wayside Inn".
December 1996
Once the Massachusetts Central Railroad chartered in 1869, this railroad section eventually became the MBTA's Central Mass Branch. Due to low ridership, the final passenger train rain in 1971, and by 1980 the final freight train. In 1996, the MBTA was directed to perform a feasibility study for the reactivation of passenger service. The MBTA concluded there would be very limited benefits for the major costs involved, as high as $177,931/rider.
Rail trail use over the MBTA's land is now a serious possibility.