Community Architect Baltimore: Baltimore County to City Trail: After 54 Years Follow the Plans!

How can an idea born back in 1973 by a wealthy Baltimore "housewife (SUN) that garnered popular support then and eventually found its way into official plans of Baltimore City 2006 and again in 2015 still not be a reality in 2026? Welcome to a world were plans far exceed realizations.

The simple idea: Take the abandoned right of way of the old Catonsville Short Line tracks and use it for a bike and hike trail connecting Baltimore County's westside to the existing Gwynn Falls trail in the city. This very concept with an extension to the Gwynn's Falls trail was shown in the 2007 and 2015 bike and trail masterplans.

At a fork in the track:
Where will the Short Line trail go?
(Photo: Philipsen)

However, half a century later, the matter has become ever more complicated. An abundance of obstacles raised their head, from the widened beltway that claimed the old rail bridge crossing in 1985, to the private Loudon cemetery placing grave sites on the right of way, a senior living compound placing its fence in it, to the MTA that wants to revive the Claremont Branch for trains. It is part of the trail alignment and vital to the connection to the existing Gwynns Falls Trail.

MTA wants to be able to switch trains between the MARC Penn Line and the MARC Camden Line (PCC). The nearly $233 million estimated total cost MTA project is currently in its concept stage ("30% engineering"), which also involves public participation.

A dedicated group of volunteers, the Catonsville Rails to Trails (CRTT) had moved heaven and earth to get the two segments of the CSL right of way (ROW) already converted to a trail, both in in Baltimore County and built with support of the community, businesses, and Baltimore County Rec & Parks. The Catonsville group previously had realized a popular Catonsville trail to Ellicott City on the former streetcar right of way of the No. 8 Catonsville - Towson line.
CRTT is optimistic about funding a new beltway crossing and has funded moving hundreds of feet of Charlestown Retirement community fencing to continue the trail beyond its current eastern end at the Baltimore National Cemetery to join the newest section of the trail at S. Beechfield Ave.

A new City led initiative that would become the Catonsville to Baltimore Greenway Coalition (CBGC), was formed in 2023 to advocate for a trail that would connect the Catonsville Short Line Trail to the Gwynns Falls Trails. The national Rails to Trails Conservancy organization and the Baltimore active transportation advocacy group Bikemore helped leaders from the Gwynns Falls Community Association, Irvington, and Beechfield organize a new group that meets bi-monthly at St. Agnes Hospital.

CBGC believes they can negotiate their way around the graves because their legality is in dispute and get Amtrak to allow use of an existing but currently unused underpass under Amtrak's four track Northeast Corridor running along Loudon cemetery as part of the Douglass Tunnel community benefits agreements. (Amtrak also wants to build a drainage culvert near the underpass). CBGC has the support of adjacent community organizations and stakeholders such as St Agnes Hospital.

Delegates Ruth and Ebersole hiked for 2.5 hours to see the alignment and so did a number of Baltimore City council members and a representative of Congressman Olszewski's office.

The first segment of the trail in Baltimore City
in a temporary state of improvement (Photo: Philipsen)

underpass).

In spite of all the support, so far trail promoters are biting their teeth out on the portion of the trail that is called the Claremont Branch, another abandoned railroad south of the Amtrak corridor. MTA is resisting considering a rail connection that could run parallel to a bike-hike trail. MTA envisions that one day they may want to have passenger service on the connector, and appears to plan for electric power lines (catenary), maximal safety distances, sound barriers and fencing, in all demanding more space than is available.

The trail advocates launched a campaign to send messages to MTA in support of a combined use as it was done, for example, at MTA's Purple Line in the DC area and a scaled down arrangement that possibly would still meet requirements of the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) using examples of the FRA guidebook of best practices.

Bicycle and pedestrian trails are popular, especially those which are separated from roads and use abandoned railroad ROWs which are never very steep and often elegantly traverse barriers such as streams and roads in grade separated underpasses or bridges, thus being able to go over longer distances without too many barriers or dangerous crossings. Such trails are suitable for commuting to work, recreational use and safe enough for families with children to use whether for walking, hiking or biking. The most popular trail of this kind in our area is probably the Northern Central Railway (NCR) Trail, stretching north for about 40 miles from Ashland into PA for hiking, biking, and horseback riding.

Catonsville to Baltimore Greenway and phasing

In older post industrial environments like ours those abandoned railroads are ubiquitous and often forgotten opportunities to expand and connect a trail network.

However, these forgotten old rail lines also represent good opportunities for expanding freight rail and rail transit services also much in demand in the region; a preprogrammed conflict that can only be resolved with mutual concessions. There is no doubt that the proposed rail Connector will be very beneficial for MARC operations which currently rely on storing trains at Union Station with very restricted possibilities for dispatch and daily inspections. But there is also no doubt that it will bring noise and access impacts to disadvantages communities along the ROW, rising the specter of community benefits of which the trail and access to green spaces could be one.

In the case of the Penn Camden Connector, with some good will and additional funds it shouldn't be too hard to accommodate a trail alongside trains that operate only occasionally in non-revenue service mode and given the short distance could do so slowly and safely.

Klaus Philipsen, FAIA