Sep 5, 2025 | We are happy to report the Falmouth Bike and Pedestrian Committee is asking the Falmouth Select Board to support pulling the F2 line to build the Bourne Rail Trail.
“I think one of the important things to recognize is that the people of Bourne very much want this rail trail and I think it would be a disservice to our neighbors to say ‘we have a great path, but you can’t have one,’” Adams said. She went on to say “because the rail is being underutilized and can’t be used at a higher rate, it would be good to support the conversion, with the acknowledgement that this has to be part of a larger project improving public transportation on the Cape.”
Read the “Falmouth Bike and Pedestrian Committee votes to ask Falmouth Select Board to support Rail-To-Trail” article by Lin Lin Hutchinson in the Enterprise by clicking HERE.
Aug 27, 2025 | Setback with Rail-to-Trail
We are disappointed to report that officials of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) have verbally informed us and town officials that the little-used Falmouth Secondary rail line will NOT be removed at this time. MassDOT's explanation, with which we strenuously disagree, is that it will be less expensive and take less time to build a pathway with the track than by removing the track and using the railbed for the trail. Every feasibility study done to date has confirmed that rail-to-trail is a far less expensive option.
As removal of the track was the sole condition to availability of the $20 million in federal funds secured for this project by Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority (CCRTA), the CCRTA is now redeploying those funds for other purpose(s).
In addition to the loss of that critical funding, the decision to retain the track means that the only way this project can go forward at this time is with a rail-with-trail design. It has long been the conviction of the FBRT as well as its key supporters--including Congressman Bill Keating, the late Tom Cahir, CCRTA administrator, and the Bourne Select Board--that the only realistic way for the pathway to be built is as rail-to-trail. This is best evidenced by the $10.1 million price tag for the half-mile rail-with-trail Phase 1 proposed by MassDOT.
Despite this setback, we remain fully committed to doing everything in our power to extend he Shining Sea Bikeway by creating the Bourne Rail Trail. Thanks to all of you who have supported this effort since as far back as 2016.
Back to the good work!
Board of Directors,
Friends of the Bourne Rail trail
Aug 7, 2025 | Bourne Enterprise Article - Fate Of Bike Path In Limbo: 'We Need To Pull The Track'
Read Owen Drury Sullivan’s article about the August 6th meeting in the Bourne Enterprise.
Pedestrian Bike Pathway Meeting
PUBLIC MEETING WEDNESDAY AUGUST 6, 2025 AT 6:00 PM
Bourne Veterans Memorial Community Building Room 2
or attend virtually at
WWW.ZOOM.US
Meeting ID: 890 0752 7858
Password: 602970
What: Shining Sea Bikeway Extension / Bourne Rail Trail Meeting
Topic: Phase 1 of the rail-with-trail pathway (1/2 mile) from the Canal to Gray Gables
Issue: View the design for this phase and weigh in on whether this section of the proposed rail-with-trail pathway should be built, even if it ends up the only phase in existence for many years, if not permanently.
What you should know:
—Since there has still been no decision from the Governor’s Office to remove the lightly-used Falmouth Secondary rail line, MassDOT is moving ahead with a plan to construct phase 1 beside the rail line.
—The cost for this phase has risen steadily over the years of design and is now $10.1 million dollars for this half-mile stretch.
—That sum includes over $3 million to repair and improve the rail line itself and remove toxic soil.
—Phases 2 and 3 remain by far the most problematic portions of the rail-with-trail pathway, requiring numerous takings of private property, multiple new bridges over waterways and sensitive wetlands, and an 8’ fence between the rail and the trail that will present a barrier to coastal access.
—Given the cost of Phase 1, the cost for the entire rail-with-trail project will likely now exceed $100 million.
—There is an alternative, but it requires removal of the Falmouth Secondary line.
—If removed, the entire path could be built quickly, on the railroad right of way owned by the Commonwealth, with the bulk of the estimated $20-25 million cost covered by federal funding secured for this purpose by the Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority.
—That funding is contingent only on a decision by Governor Healey to remove the track. Until that decision is made, however, the administration in Washington may at any moment pull back the funds.
—The loss of the track for the rail-to-trail pathway will cause the one private business using the taxpayer subsidized track once or twice a week to use trucks instead, but the the number of trucks added will be an insignificant increase to the truck traffic already on the roads.
—If it is ever determined that a track is needed by the Upper Cape towns (none of which have used the tracks for many years now) or the military (which has not used the track for any meaningful purpose since WWII), a new track could be built as part of the new bridge project in a non-environmentally sensitive area inland.
Please consider attending this meeting, either in person or virtually, to view the plan for Phase 1 and to share your opinion of whether the Town should proceed with the redesigned Phase 1 of the trail, particularly if no other segment of the trail is likely to be built.
July 30, 2025 Friends of the Bourne Rail Trailt its meeting this week the Town Administrator's Advisory Committee on Pedestrian Bicycle Pathway discussed the possibility of asking MADOT to delay the advertising of construction bids for Phase 1 of the proposed Bourne Rail Trail. The current cost to the taxpayers of that mere ½ mile section of pathway has now risen to $10.1 million. The design for that rail-with-trail phase has been redesigned by MADOT and the Committee felt that it was important to share these changes with the public.
It is our belief that the Bourne Rail Trail will not be built without removal of the track. A rail-with-trail path would require new bridges over waterways and environmentally sensitive wetlands. It would entail the takings of the land of private parties, with likely litigation and at great cost. All the segments that run along the track would require an 8’ fence to separate the rail from the trail, which would be a barrier to coastal access for the town’s inland residents. It is now clear that the cost for such a trail would exceed $100 million.
The Committee has called a public meeting to discuss the redesign of Phase 1 for Wednesday, August 6 at 6:00 pm, at the Bourne Veterans Memorial Community Building, Room 2. Please consider attending and sharing your opinion of whether the Town should proceed with the redesigned Phase 1 of the trail, particularly if no other segment of the trail is likely to be built.
Read about this in the Bourne Enterprise:
https://www.capenews.net/.../article_a20b9fd8-e821-4320...
July 29, 2025
At its meeting this week, the Town Administrator's Advisory Committee on Pedestrian Bicycle Pathway discussed the possibility of asking MADOT to delay the advertising of construction bids for Phase 1 of the proposed Bourne Rail Trail. The current cost to the taxpayers of that mere ½ mile section of pathway has now risen to $10.1 million. The design for that rail-with-trail phase has been redesigned by MADOT and the Committee felt that it was important to share these changes with the public.
It is our belief that the Bourne Rail Trail will not be built without removal of the track. A rail-with-trail path would require new bridges over waterways and environmentally sensitive wetlands. It would entail the takings of the land of private parties, with likely litigation and at great cost. All the segments that run along the track would require an 8’ fence to separate the rail from the trail, which would be a barrier to coastal access for the town’s inland residents. It is now clear that the cost for such a trail would exceed $100 million.
The Committee has called a public meeting to discuss the redesign of Phase 1 for Wednesday, August 6 at 6:00 pm, at a location in the town to be determined. Please consider attending and sharing your opinion of whether the Town should proceed with the redesigned Phase 1 of the trail, particularly if no other segment of the trail is likely to be built.
The Truth to the Private Railroad Company’s Claims
A few have asked: Isn’t the Falmouth Secondary rail line in frequent use? To haul the towns’ trash? Doesn’t the use of trains keep many trucks off the roads? Wouldn’t it make sense to build the pathway next to, instead of in place of, the track?
Answers: No, no, no and no.
The town of Bourne has been quite deliberate in the approach to creating the Bourne Rail Trail and have considered closely the option of rail-with-trail. In fact, until the recent unanimous decision of the Bourne Select Board to pivot to rail-to-trail, the design being worked on was rail-with-trail. However, it has been clear for some time now, that we have a choice between having the pathway or having the rail line, but not both. Leaving the track will more than quadruple the cost, to what is estimated to be a staggering $80 million or more. In addition, the right of way for the rail line is quite narrow in many sections, so we would need to “take” property from adjoining landowners, a multi-year, perhaps even decades, process, if even possible. Finally, there will be a substantial fence required between the track and the path that will separate the coastline from the interior, not a situation anyone wants.
Those advocating for retaining the track have, unfortunately, been spreading some misinformation. The rail line is not in fact used much. It’s a lightly employed track, on which run an average of two or three trains per week. Those trains are not carrying municipal trash. None of the four Upper Cape towns have used the train for that purpose for many years now. The user is a private, for profit company hiring a private, for profit railroad operator to move its construction debris off Cape to Ohio. The dinner train runs only a few times a summer. There is no public use of the Falmouth Secondary line, yet it is subsidized by the taxpayers. The four Upper Cape towns’ income is solely from lease of the transfer station to the private construction debris disposal company, and amounts to approximately $20,000 per town per year. Finally, the claim by the track operator that it takes “thousands” of trucks off the road is particularly misleading. Taking at face value the operator's own numbers of of trains running and trucks removed, there are no more than ten trucks a day, and likely fewer, taken off the roads as a result of operation of the Falmouth Secondary line. Of course, those trucks are not entirely off the roads, since they are still needed to transport the construction debris to the transfer station to be loaded on the train.
While we all agree that we should be working to reduce our carbon footprint, the fact is that the pathway will also reduce load on the roads. There will be people who commute on the pathway, rather than driving, since the pathway will significantly increase safety for bikers, walkers and drivers alike by virtue of their no longer having to share the roads (Shore Road, in particular, is a great example). There will also be those who jump on the pathway in Bourne rather than driving down to the start of the Shining Sea Bikeway in Falmouth.
In short, the people who have been working on this project for many years now, as well as federal, state and local officeholders, have reached the conclusion that the public benefit of the pathway (health and and aesthetic benefits, traffic safety, a boon to local businesses, and a world-class amenity for residents and visitors) far outweighs the benefit of the lightly and limited use of the rail line.
The Friends Advocate for a “Rail-to-Trail” Pathway, 2023
The Friends of the Bourne Rail Trail are so fortunate to have now been joined by influential local, state and federal leaders in advocating for a pivot from the rail-with-trail design pursued to date to a rail-to-trail project. Building the trail in place of, rather than adjacent to, the little used Falmouth Secondary rail line, is a simpler, much less expensive, and significantly less environmentally impactful approach, that will result in the user friendly trail envisioned all along.
Perhaps most critical to this pivot has been the tremendous support of the Cape Cod Regional Transit Agency (CCRTA) which has secured federal funds adequate to build the Bourne Rail Trail in its entirety, provided we remove the Falmouth Secondary to create a rail-to-trail pathway.
On March 7, 2023 upon the recommendation of the Town Administrator’s Advisory Committee on Bicycle Pedestrian Pathway, and with the encouragement of Senator Susan Moran and Representatives David Vieira and Steven Xiarhos, and staff members from Congressman William Keating, Senator Edward Markey, and Senator Elizabeth Warren in attendance, the Bourne Select Board voted unanimously to endorse the pivot to rail-to-trail and ask Governor Maura Healey to direct the removal of the Falmouth Secondary rail line and build the trail with the available funding as expeditiously as possible.
That resolution was accompanied by a packet of information and letters of support put together by the CCRTA and the Friends. We are now awaiting the Governor’s response.
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Want to read more? See these recent articles from the Bourne Enterprise:
Guest Commentary: Beware the Motives of Those Arguing to Retain the Tracks
by Ken Cheitlin and David Mcpherson
October 2022 | Buzzards Bay Watershed Ride
The Bourne Rail Trail Blazers participated in our fifth consecutive year riding as a team in the annual Buzzards Bay Watershed Ride. The Friends are grateful to the 32 team members that raised $28,250 for the Buzzards Bay Coalition and $17,800 in matching funds for the Friends of the Bourne Rail Trail. We look forward to next year’s ride with the BRT Blazers!
June 2022 | Bourne Rail Trail awarded $499,000 by MassTrails
The Bourne Rail Trail project was awarded a state grant of $499,000 from the MassTrails program for design and engineering of Phases 1 and 4. This is the third and largest grant the project has received from MassTrails, with $285,000 awarded in 2019 and $100,000 in 2020.
The town committee responsible for overseeing the project (Administrator’s Advisory Committee on Bike and Pedestrian Pathways) is credited with submitting these successful applications for the MassTrails grant. The project is lucky to have so many resourceful and dedicated folks volunteering their time to make this trail a reality!
This award shows that the project is gaining momentum with state officials who see the benefits in investing significant funds in the project.
October 2021 | Blazers Sweep Watershed Ride Fundraising Awards
Our very own Ken Cheitlin accepted the prize for top individual fundraiser at $12,096, and the BRT Blazers were recognized as the top fundraising team at nearly $46,000. Outstanding!
September 2021 | Phase 1 Comment Letter on 25% Design
Read the Friends’ formal comment letter on the 25% Design proposal for Phase 1.
July 2020 | FBRT Featured on Chronicle5 WCVB “Rail Trail” Episode
The Bourne Rail Trail project was featured on WCVB’s Chronicle program.