College Park Trolley Trail Expansion (South)

The town of Riverdale is looking to expand the College Park Trolley Trail. This was placed in the comments of a post from 2005 and I felt it was important enough to "promote"

Riverdale Park and Hyattsville hope to turn more of this abandoned trolley line into a hiker-biker trail extending the College Park Trolley Trail.

We are showing a movie clip from the 1950s of a trolley car rolling along this line through My Rainier, Hyattsville, Riverdale and College Park. The movie clip is a delightful quick peak into our past (just 12 minutes long).

After the movie there will be a short 10-minute Q&A, then we'll take a walk (weather permitting) and identify some landmarks from the film and see where this hiker-biker trail might run. Come dressed for the outdoor hike. The whole event will take less than an hour.

When: Saturday, Feb 3, 2007, 3 p.m.
Where: S&J Restaurant in Riverdale Park Town Center,  6108 Rhode Island Ave and Queensbury Rd.

It should be fun and educational (no charge). Dress is very casual - weekend hike-in-the-woods casual.

We hope to see you there. Please pass this along to anyone that might be interested.

- Mayor Vernon Archer and Council Member Rob Oppenheim, Riverdale Park

P.S. In the movie, we board the streetcar (line #82) at 4th St NW NE and Rhode Island Ave. Here the trolley runs up the middle of Route One. We see a few sites, such as the railroad underpass, the loop in Mt.Rainier (terminal cafe), and a bit of downtown Hyattsville.

And from Hyattsville the trolley car follows alongside the railroad tracks into Riverdale Park, where we get a glimpse of the Riverdale Park town center from the late 1950s - including the S&J restaurant where we will be viewing the movie. We then see the trolley continuing north thru Riverdale and College Park.

Someone pointed out in the comments of the same post that it appears that some expansion of the trail south has already occurred. I'll have to check it out.

I was running in College Park south of the metro station recently, and it looked to me like part of the "southern extention" is complete. I had been on it a couple of years back and the existing path was narrow (maybe 3' wide) and cracked. It has been repaved to standard bike path width with nice curb cuts in the residential section south of Calvert Rd. No work has been done, as far as I can tell, between Calvert Rd and Paint Branch Parkway.

Comments

[Grendel]

This is what I heard back when I asked the Rainier Riders is they knew anything about an attempt to extend the CPTT:

The City of Hyattsville's Hyattsville Bikers United group is doing a report and wiki for the city on bike and ped issues as part of the Bike Friendly City designation initiative. It may well be possible for others to edit the wiki as well, I am not sure. We are calling for the connection of the NW Branch trail at Armentrout Parkway/Route 1 north to the College Park section of the Trolley Trail. Currently the Riverdale Park section is unpaved but maintained and passable, and the Hyattsville section is intermittantly maintained and largely unpassable. With the EYA development there will be trail improvements to at least their property's section of the trail, and more to follow.
http://www.hyattsvillewiki.com/page/Bicycle+%26+Pedestrian+Safety+Report

[Purple Eagle]

Sorry I did not identify myself on the "running" comment. I forgot until after I posted.

I have been posting occasionally as "John" but I think I will start using my trail name (from backpacking)