Working with state and federal officials, ECGA volunteers have helped ensure that ongoing planning work on the proposed South East High Speed Rail Corridor between Petersburg, VA and Raleigh, NC will include a greenway corridor in both states. Environmental planning, set to begin this spring, has been approved to acquire a 30-foot easement adjacent to the rail corridor specifically to support a greenway trail. Piggy-backing a greenway trail onto this large interstate transportation effort provides an unique opportunity for large-scale trail implementation.
The greenway would generally follow the high speed rail corridor but would diverge at towns to provide access to local amenities. In areas were the high speed rail alignment will divert from existing railroad track, newly abandoned track bed will be used as the base recreational trail. In other areas, where the new high-speed rail alignment will follow existing tracks, the greenway would be adjacent to the rail corridor. This means that the proposed 140-mile trail would be a unique mix of rail-to-trails and rails-with-trails. While this effort is still in the early planning phases, ECGA intends to use the momentum of this first effort to push this ambitious plan to a successful conclusion.
Source: East Coast Greenway E-News
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