The GO GREEN Needham Expo on Saturday, November 10 from 10 am to 4pm at Needham Town Hall will showcase efforts to make our community a little greener. To see a full list of participants, click here. Hope to see you there!

The Bay Colony Rail Trail (BCRT) is a proposed 7-mile multi-use trail through the towns of Needham, Dover and Medfield.  The goal of the BCRT project is to construct a multi-use trail (or rail trail) along the unused section of railroad Right-of-Way (ROW) owned by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA).  An overview map of the regional BCRT corridor is shown at right (click map for larger version).

The proposed path will replace the abandoned railway corridor, most recently operated by the Bay Colony Railroad.

The Bay Colony Rail Trail presents a compelling opportunity to create a natural community resource. The proposed path traverses three communities linking residential areas to business districts, public transportation, schools, and recreation areas. At least half the distance runs through conservation land such as the Needham Town Forest and Dover’s Wylde Woods.

The Bay Colony Rail Trail is also part of a much larger network in Eastern Massachusetts that in the future will provide hundreds of miles of loosely interconnected trails within two miles of over a million people.

Bay Colony Rail Trail Needham

The Town of Needham is interested in the potential to convert the available abandoned railroad corridors into shared-use recreational paths. The more immediate opportunity is the almost 2-mile stretch between Needham Junction and the Charles River, generally referred to as the Southern Section, in contrast to the Northern Section that runs from Needham Heights to the Charles River at the Newton Line. The Northern Section is a future possibility, with the timing dependent on many factors including planned construction to widen Route 128/95, which will remove the bridge over the highway.

Want to help bring the Bay Colony Rail Trail to Needham? Visit us at the GO GREEN Needham Expo.

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To learn more about the GO GREEN Needham Expo, visit www.greenneeham.org, or follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/greenneedham/.

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