Silver Spring Trails

My name is Wayne Phyillaier and I live in Woodside, Silver Spring. I am speaking tonight as an individual. I have been working as an active member of the Washington Area Bicyclist Association (WABA) and the Coalition for the Capital Crescent Trail (CCCT) for over ten years to have the Capital Crescent Trail finished through my Woodside neighborhood.

Those of us living in the neighborhoods of Woodside, North Woodside, and Rosemary Hills, and also the many families living in the apartments and condominiums in the Silver Spring CBD, are still waiting for the Capital Crescent Trail after all of these years.

By now you have heard many times from opponents of the Purple Line that a trail survey shows there are 10,000 uses of the Georgetown Branch Trail every week, and the Purple Line will interfere with this use. But this takes one traffic count out of context from the survey and ignores major survey findings. In fact, a major finding of the survey is that the Trail is grossly underused east of Bethesda.

M-NCPPC Department of Parks, May 2007, “Capital Crescent Trail / Georgetown Branch Trail Survey Report“, p. 1, “Survey Highlights”: “The survey showed that the paved CCT received twice the use of the gravel Georgetown Branch Trail. The low use of the gravel trail at Grubb Road strongly supports the need to pave this portion of the trail and complete it to downtown Silver Spring.”

The Purple Line Functional Plan is entirely consistent with the trail survey recommendation. It would give the Capital Crescent Trail to ALL neighborhoods between Bethesda and Silver Spring. The trail would be built to a good standard, well separated from transit, with grade separated crossings of all major highways between Silver Spring and Bethesda, and connected to the Metropolitan Branch Trail.

The Functional Plan will give us all a better Trail – AND better transit. Please endorse it!

Wayne Phyillaier
Silver Spring, MD
www.silverspringtrails.org

The informal walking trail along the WMATA/CSX corridor behind Woodside had a major growth spurt today, thanks to the efforts of community volunteers. Until today the trail had extended from South Springwood to the Spring Street bridge, but then the trail followed a narrow and steep ramp up to the north side of Spring Street.

The trail has now been extended under the bridge to the Silver Spring Post Office. Graffiti on the bridge has been painted over. Bags of trash were collected and hauled off. Volunteers used hand tools to clear brush and to grade and mulch a foot path under the bridge. Now the trail continues under the bridge and comes out between the Post Office and the south side of Spring Street, giving a grade separated trail crossing under Spring Street.

This footpath is mulched and graded to be an easy pathway for most trail users now, but is only about 2 feet wide where it is under the Spring Street bridge. It is likely to be improved in coming months, much like the older trail section north of the bridge has been significantly widened and improved in small increments by volunteer work over the last year.

Volunteer energy to create this foot path (at least my own) comes from the frustration of still waiting for the Capital Crescent Trail in Woodside after all of these years. A local walking path may be the best we can achieve for now, until the Purple Line clears the way for the regional CCT by getting crucial right-of-way at 16th Street and Colesville Road for grade separated trail crossings of those busy highways. When completed, the CCT will be a full width, paved, ADA compliant multi-use trail along this alignment.

This community volunteer day was organized by Woodside Civic Association President Webb Smedley. There may be another volunteer day next month to begin work to clear the final trail extension to Fenwick Lane.

Work on the Woodside Trail has continued at a steady pace since last reported here at “Making trail connections in Woodside”. It is now a very pleasant walking trail to the Spring Street Bridge. The next step is to extend the trail under the bridge toward Fenwick Lane.

The Woodside neighborhood is sponsoring a Community Service Day event to extend this trail. The Woodside Civic Association notice:

Community Service Day Event

When: October 25th (Sunday) 9 to 12 Noon
What: Woodside Trail clean up and extension
Where: We are meeting at corner of Ballard Street and CSX railroad tracks; if you arrive late, you may go to the rear of the U.S. Post Office at the corner of 2nd Avenue and Spring Streets.
Bring: Wear long pants and work shoes, bring your favorite tool (esp pick, pruner) trash bags, water and some tools will be provided.
Details: The Woodside trail is now a functional mulched trail between South Springwood Drive and Spring Street. The Community Service Day activity will be extending this trail to Fenwick Lane with a spur up to Second Avenue adjacent to the US Post Office. This trail will roughly follow the alignment of the future Capital Crescent Trail to be completed in conjunction with the Purple Line – extending the existing paved trail between Bethesda and Georgetown to Silver Spring and connecting into the new Paul Sarbanes Transit Center. When the final trail is completed it will generally be 12′ wide and comply with ADA and other applicable laws. It will include a bridge across Colesville Rd in downtown Silver Spring and the CSX right of way in north Silver Spring and across Connecticut Avenue in Chevy Chase with an underpass included at the dangerous Jones Bridge Road intersection.
The trail will utilize existing underpasses at Spring St and 16th Street in Silver Spring.

Contact: Webb Smedley 301/589-0215 woodsidecivicassn@gmail.com; Day of event – contact: cell 301/651-8890

The Gazette has outed me and Woodside Civic Association President Webb Smedley while working on a little known “peoples trail” in Woodside, in the January 7 story “Commuters find connections off the beaten path”.

This short peoples trail is directly along the master plan alignment of the future Capital Crescent Trail. Some of us call it our “orphan trail” because it is disconnected from its parent, the CCT.

This two block long trail is an attractive walking trail for local residents even though it is alongside the CSXT/Metro corridor. I walk it daily with my dog. But it is disconnected from neighboring North Woodside by 16th Street, and is disconnected from the Silver Spring downtown by Spring Street. It will remain disconnected until Purple Line and CSXT right of way issues are resolved.

The Gazette story goes into the right of way issue:

“Bob Sullivan, a CSX spokesman, says the railroad is always willing to review rail-to-trail requests.

‘The first concern always is safety. Where a sale of land may be required, CSX generally seeks to obtain fair market value for the asset. The company would be willing to review a specific request relating to the Georgetown Branch Trail, but cannot make any other observations without first reviewing plans,’ Sullivan says.”

This Gazette contact with CSXT is in stark contrast in tone to other CSXT contacts regarding a trail right of way. When M-NCPPC was developing its North and West Silver Spring Master Plan in 2000, M-NCPPC planners contacted CSXT about a trail right of way but were unable to get CSXT to discuss the issue. The CSXT website has a CSX Public Projects Manual that states on p. 20:

“Key Points and Procedures

Private or public parallel at-grade paths are not permitted on active CSXT right of way.
CSXT will oppose condemnation proceedings aimed at recreational use of trackside property.
The public agency or private landowner that establishes bike/pedestrian path usage of trackside property must provide unqualified indemnity and adequate insurance to protect CSXT as well as safety measures necessary to eliminate safety risks.
Bicycle/pedestrian pathways cannot cross tracks at grade.”

Attempting to get CSXT right of way for a trail alone remains a daunting task, regardless of the apparently compliant comments made by CSXT spokesman Sullivan to the Gazette. And there remains the question how many first born children CSXT will require in payment for the trail right of way if a sale can be negotiated. Our best hope to connect the Woodside “orphan trail” to its parent CCT remains with the Purple Line project.

Woodside residents came out to vote on February 5, and the Purple Line won in a landslide.

The February 5 meeting of the Woodside Civic Association (WCA) focused on the Purple Line. The MTA project team briefed the WCA on the current project status and design.

MTA Project Manager Mike Madden briefs WCA at the Feb. 5 meeting.

WCA took up a resolution to support the Purple Line light-rail with trail immediately following the MTA briefing. The resolution passed by unanamous vote.

Most of the resolution addresses the benefits to Woodside from the light-rail and proposed transit station at 16th Street, as it should. But a significant part of the resolution addresses finishing the CCT:

“…….WHEREAS the proposed hiker-biker trail will provide a significant improvement to the recreational trail system for our residents, ensuring a safe way of traveling by bike or on foot to Rock Creek Park and other destinations, and
WHEREAS failure to proceed with the joint use transit/trail project may leave residents of Silver Spring with no off-road connection to the Georgetown Branch and Capital Crescent Trails…”

“….WCA affirms its support for the completion of the hiker-biker trail along the 3rd Avenue right-of-way between 16th Street and Spring Streets, and supports moving forward with segments of this trail connection wherever possible so that the neighborhood gains some improvements to the trail and so that regrading and
replanting along the impacted area can proceed as quickly as
possible.”