The Vision Plan: New England Trails

We propose the addition of 660 miles of hiking trails, primarily to make east to west connections. An even more significant proposal however, is to convert all abandoned railroads to rail trails. Of the 3,752 miles of potential rail trials in New England, only 283 miles have been converted to rail trails. Current proposals call for an additional 745 miles of rail to trail conversions throughout the region. Since we are the first group in New England, who actually mapped all abandoned railroads, we are in the position to propose the conversion the remaining 2,764 miles to rail trails (Figure 9 and Table 2). We are very much aware, however, of local opposition to rail trails in some areas. Some people see danger to their property from rail trail users. More and more studies are emerging, however, that indicate these fears are unsubstantiated. As acceptance and then demand increases for rail trails, we foresee the widespread implementation of rail trails in the next decades, or century. More detailed information on the New England Trails vision plan is presented in a separate chapter. Figure 9. The Vision Plan for New England Trails.   New England Interstate Trails    Hiking Trails  Rail Trails  Results Exisiting Trails (miles)  982  283  1,265 Current Trails Proposals (miles)   345  745  1,090 Our Trail Proposals (miles)  660  2,764  3,384 Total Trails (miles)  1,987  3,752  5,739 Table 2. New England Trails: Significant Interstate Connections