Rail trails and historic train stations

Silver Spring Trails has more on the reasoning behind the rerouting of the Metropolitan Branch Trail.

If the MetBranch cannot cross the station property, then the trail is left without the ability to cross Georgia Avenue on either the 5′ wide sidewalk now on the existing CSX railroad bridge, or on the proposed new trail bridge. The trail would be forced onto a new route – crossing Georgia Avenue at-grade at the Sligo Avenue crosswalk, then following along Philadelphia Avenue and Fenton Street to yet another at-grade crossing of a busy roadway at East-West Highway.

The recent decision by Montgomery Preservation Inc. to refuse trail access runs against the widespread national experience with trail-museum partnerships and against their past promises when seeking public support for their station restoration.

SST then gives several examples, some right here in the area of cases where trails and museums have enhanced one another.

And furthermore points out that there was an understanding that Montgomery Preservation Inc would be given the station and half a million dollars in donations and it would serve, among other uses, as a trail rest stop.

I had several discussions with Nancy Urban, then the MPI Community Coordinator, after MPI acquired the property from CSX in 1998, on how the restored station could best attract and serve trail users. Ms. Urban suggested amenities such as a water fountain and a historic display case that could entice trail users to stop and come inside to visit the station museum. MPI appeared to fully understand the value of the trail for bringing hundreds of visitors into the station. It was clearly understood that the alignment for the trail would be alongside the CSX tracks and under the station canopy.

But now they're opposing the trail because it would cut into the revenue they can gain by renting out the station, and the area where the trail would run, as a meeting space.

If MPI holds to its rejection of the MetBranch Trail, the general public will lose this unique opportunity to have a safe, attractive and direct hiker-biker trail connecting downtown Silver Spring to Takoma Park and beyond.

There is, of course, more at SST.

Comments

[Shawn]

Good breakdown. Hope they reconsider - I visit Silver Spring only 1-2 times per year, but that'd increase if I were to have the MBT head all the way there.

[Riley]

The SS train station is 100 ft from my commute every evening. In ten years of riding that route I can think of only a single instance in which I noticed an event on that property or even any preparations for an event. Admittedly there is very little room between the covered area and the tracks - it does represent the platform for the train station as it was in the days of commuter trains. However the platform is also less than 50 feet from the Metro rails that parallel the railroad tracks along that route. Metro trains squealing past as they brake on their way into Silver Spring Station make the rental of the platform a fairly unattractive resource for meetings or parties while the enormous value of the trail goes unfulfilled for exceedingly parochial interests.