Coltsville Industrial Track Abandonment - Ashuwillticook Trail

[F-line to Dudley via Park]

STB filing from Friday: http://www.stb.dot.gov/filings/all.nsf/ ... 236358.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Line's been OOS since 2008, but this will formally abandon it from the Merrill Rd. grade crossing in Pittsfield north to end of track so the state can extend the Ashuwillticook trail 2 miles closer to downtown.



Doesn't CSX still own the ROW property even though it's been Housy's to operate for the last umpteen years?

[newpylong]

Housy owns it.

[Jeff Smith]

https://live959.com/expansion-of-rail-t ... e-horizon/

https://www.iberkshires.com/story/63987 ... egins.html

In mid-December, construction began on the extension of the Ashuwillticook Rail Trail that will connect Adams to Pittsfield.

This 1.56-mile extension will run south from the vicinity of mall Connector Road to Crane Avenue. The trail will be a 10 feet-wide, paved, shared-use path that is part of the trail system that currently runs nearly 13 miles through Lanesborough to Lime Street in Adams.

The trail extension currently under design will travel along Route 8 for several hundred feet and then around the boundaries of Unistress Construction yard. It will then go back up to the former Housatonic Railroad rail bed and at that point will stay on the old rail bed straight down to Crane Avenue.

The rail right of way was recently acquired by the state and is now under the control of the state Department of Transportation. The trail will be completely off-roadway and will cross the Connector Road and the access road to the Berkshire County House of Correction at grade.
...
This trail extension project is the result of many years of planning for a bike and pedestrian trail in Pittsfield that uses the former Housatonic Railroad corridor track. It is the northern section of an overall city plan for continuing the trail south through Pittsfield to Lenox and then through the rest of Berkshire County.
...

[shadyjay]

I rode the Ashuwillticook Trail last Friday for the first time, from downtown Adams down to the mall on the Pittsfield line. The reconstruction efforts of it last summer have yielded a first class trail. It is very scenic, with the Hoosac River, then the reservoirs. If you want to see some photos of it, hit here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/shadyjay/ ... 9247504108

I do wish that some of these rail-trails could have been kept for "scenic rail purposes", but that doesn't always pay the bills. I guess this is the next best thing!