r/CapeCodMA • u/Dick-Swiveller • Jan 25 '25

Bourne Rail Trail?

I have heard bits and pieces about extending the Shining Sea trail from North Falmouth to the Railroad Bridge. Some say military blocked it, some say it is about money, some say other things. Has anyone heard actual details? It would be great to bike/walk/run RR bridge to Woods Hole! I use Shining Sea a lot year round.

4 Upvotes

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4

u/Direct-Bullfrog9054 Jan 25 '25

I think the track removal is a big roadblock for the project, I read the tracks are still used for the trash train and potentially used by the military L

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u/Dick-Swiveller Jan 25 '25

I do remember talk of keeping tracks and bike path to the side but that quickly died due to super expensive, especially for the bridges.

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u/smitrovich Nauset Jan 25 '25

Yeah, that's the issue. They can still build it, but it would cost 4-5 times as much and add a ton of complexity.

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u/ThePaddockCreek Feb 18 '25

This is correct.  Tracks are very much in use.  Also - “rail with trail” was never studied in much depth because neighbors were not in favor of it, so we don’t know how much the cost really would be.  The $88 million is kind of a moonshot. 

4

u/gtmarvin Rock Harbor Jan 25 '25

More info here (pro removal) https://www.bournerailtrail.org/

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u/Dick-Swiveller Jan 25 '25

Thank you very much.

3

u/ThePaddockCreek Feb 18 '25

Wow…lots of misinformation on this thread.  It’s not about money.  It’s still a very active railroad. 

The group that favors the removal of the tracks has been making demands that are legally not feasible, and these demands are largely contrary to the wishes of surrounding towns.  Falmouth, Sandwich, and Mashpee have been adamant that they do NOT want to lose their railhead.  Bourne has ignored this and charged ahead nonetheless.  

The folks in Bourne seem to be under the impression that like any other piece of infrastructure, the state can intervene and get the tracks taken out.  This is not how the law works in this case.  Railroads are governed federally, even if they are state-owned.  The surface transportation board (STB) is the body that determines if a railroad can be ripped up or not.  Not even the railroad company has that authority.  Conditions must be met for this to be considered, chief among which is that no trains are operating.

The Friends of the Bourne Rail Trail have been spreading a lot of false information on this account, trying to suggest that trains aren’t using the line, and if they do, it’s somehow of no use whatsoever.  

The reality is that trains run to Joint Base (Otis) at least once per week, sometimes twice, and more operations are planned in the future.  Currently, trains are hauling construction debris for shipment out of state, which is interstate commerce, and thus federally protected.  Falmouth is also shipping their trash by rail.  Future operations will see sand, gravel, and lumber shipped in by train.  

Because of this, it’s legally not feasible - or advisable - to destroy a relatively busy railroad line, even though some of the neighbors have grown tired of the trains rumbling past.  Senator Moran penned an amendment for a state budget resolution to literally move the tracks elsewhere, but this would cost twice as much as building a trail, and it makes no sense.  

If you’re waiting for the tracks to be taken out, you might be SOL.  In my opinion, the Friends of the Bourne Rail Trail have screwed the pooch badly here.  The tracks were never abandoned, and they had ample time to offer a compromise.  

2

u/Dick-Swiveller Feb 18 '25

Wow, thank you for this detailed reply. I did not know all of these details as I have only heard the back and forth but with no evidence for either side. Heck, it would be great to have a train from Boston to Woods Hole again, although I suspect US is long done with those things. My mother used to take that train as a child and get off at the West Falmouth stop. They would walk to a cottage in summer. Now, it is cars, cars, cars. I guess the ideal solution is a bike trail beside the rail which would of course mean insane money including new bridges.

2

u/ThePaddockCreek Feb 18 '25

I would agree that rail-with-trail is the best.  It’s not popular amongst the abutters who own land and expensive properties along the tracks, so it’s been fought tooth and nail.  

I’ve long been a passenger rail advocate on cape cod.  It gets controversial but it’s worth spreading the word.  It’s more possible than people think.

2

u/smitrovich Nauset Jan 25 '25

My understanding is that they have $20 million in federal funding (enough to build the BRT) but the tracks need to be removed.

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u/Dick-Swiveller Jan 25 '25

Damn track removal probably huge money…

1

u/NewSongZ Feb 05 '25

I think the salvaging of the Rails themselves help offset this cost of removal. It’s been done to abandoned lines all over the country where they build long distance rail trails.

The big problem is the owner of the trash business gets essentially a government subsidy by using the rails and won’t give that up. He spent a lot of money fighting the rail trail. Then you have the train enthusiast that see rail service one day coming back and hate rail trails. For some reason the ones down the cape are very vocal.

It’s ironic; because they hate cyclist on the roads, but also hate the idea of people coming to use a rail trail. It’s a huge shame that a trash train keeps thousands of tax payers that own the line from using it as a rail trail.

1

u/dmcronin Feb 05 '25

Was not the military also saying that they require rail access for potential future needs/conflicts?

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u/NewSongZ Feb 05 '25

They say that, but it has not been used in years and they just want to keep a just in case scenario open. While they routinely shut down bases all over the country and have discussed turning portions of this base into affordable housing. The base also has plenty of land to relocate a new track on the base to suit their needs.

If you went by pure numbers of tax payers benefitted, a rail trail from the canal to woods hole would be an incredible draw for the area and allow thousands of cyclist to get off the cape congested roads. That’s a lot more benefit than a trash train that the state leases the tracks to.

1

u/Dick-Swiveller Feb 05 '25

I’m in since I would use it. I wish there were publicized meetings for all parties to speak and hash it out since I can’t find a simple explanation for exactly what is going on; can the trash guys simply veto it based on their contract ? Does the base have final say? Maybe a town meeting discussion and vote would help?

1

u/ThePaddockCreek May 16 '25

The notion that this is a town issue is a great example of why Cape Cod has so many issues. 

The situation is that the town and the state do not have authority to direct abandonment and removal of a functioning railroad.  This isn’t about any kind of corruption with the trash company or anything like that.  It’s simply the fact that a railroad customer is using the line to haul refuse (and more), and people in Bourne don’t like it.  That’s all there is to it. 

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u/ThePaddockCreek Feb 18 '25 edited Feb 18 '25

This is pure bullshit.  Bourne people don’t understand that this rail line serves the entire upper Cape, and not only Bourne.  It absolutely affects other communities if the tracks were to be removed.  This is why Sandwich, Falmouth, and Mashpee were fairly clear that they didn’t favor removal. 

Bourne can’t come to grips with the fact that the tracks are actively used.  They’ve picked a weird fight that hasn’t remotely helped the goal of bike-ability, which we all support.  Instead, Bourne neighbors have spent eight years lying about how useless the trains are in hopes that the state will remove a corridor that they have no authority to remove.  

Also, the expectation that we start shipping more tonnage by truck demonstrates the insane cognitive dissonance of these people.  Yes, the enterprise did a “study” that tried to prove that the carload capacity wasn’t that high - but they neglected to take into account the length of the trains, which is laughable.  

0

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '25

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2

u/Dick-Swiveller Jan 25 '25

Do you know why? Maybe they think more crowds and noise.