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• Promoting tourism and economic development. A 1992 National Park
Service study of three trails documents the economic benefits generated
by trail users, as do local studies of trails such as the Little
Miami River Trail in Ohio and the Northern
Central Trail in Maryland. Link
to study findings
• Preserving the nation's industrial heritage. The rich industrial
heritage of Southwestern Pennsylvania can be traced through a series
of rail-trails including the Ghost
Town Trail and Youghigheny
River trails.
• Providing safer places to bicycle and walk.
• Cleaning up abandoned industrial sites. A growing rail-trail network
in Pittsburgh, including the Eliza Furnace Trail, is reclaiming
the city's river fronts from disused industrial plants.
• Encouraging alternative transportation routes. An study of three
regional trails, published in the Transportation Research Board's
TR News, estimated that at least one third of trips on the Pinellas,
Burke Gilman
and Minuteman trails were for work or shopping trips rather than
purely recreational rides. Some trails, such as the Bill Chipman
Palouse Trail linking two university campuses in Moscow, Idaho and
Pullman, Wash., clearly serve as critical transportation links for
bicyclists and pedestrians.
• Creating linear parks and public space in crowded urban areas.
Seattle's Burke Gilman Trail provides a delightful tree-lined ride
or walk through residential areas to the University of Washington
Campus and on towards the downtown area.
• Preserving natural corridors and native species. Trails such as
the Iowa Heritage Trail and Nebraska's Cowboy
Trail connect, preserve and provide access to natural areas
and plant species that can rarely be found outside the undeveloped
railroad corridor.
• Keeping transportation corridors intact. The Capital
Crescent Trail, bringing suburban Maylanders to the District
of Columbia (and District residents to Maryland), has preserved
a corridor for potential future rail use that could never be pieced
together again if it had been lost to development when railroad
operations first ceased. Some portions of the corridor may soon
see trail use alongside a new light rail line.
The cost of developing trails such as these varies according to land
acquisition costs, the type of trail surface, the width of the trail,
and the facilities that are provided for trail users. Construction
costs alone can run $40,000 per mile for a soft surface trail, and
this can rise to more than $125,000 per mile for an asphalt trail.
Acquisition costs for the trail corridor also vary enormously. Railroads
have donated abandoned corridors to government agencies of non-profits
organizations. They have also offered them for sale at nominal prices.
However, these corridors are often valuable real estate and may have
to bought at market prices.
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