Life in much of America today seems fractured, offering fewer opportunities for people to meet, mingle and feel part of the same community. But there is at least one exception: local rail trails — quiet, leafy greenways that follow the paths trains once traveled.
Over the past six decades, a citizen-led movement has transformed more than 26,000 miles of abandoned rail corridors into thousands of public paths for walking, biking and recreation. Tens of millions of people use these trails each year — in the countryside, in small towns and in big cities. This successful effort to convert rails to trails has never belonged to just one political party.
We know this because we’ve lived it; rail trails have been important to both our lives. One of us (Thompson) grew up along the nation’s first rail trail: the Elroy-Sparta State Trail in Wisconsin, which ran through his family farm. The other (Dean) helped create the Island Line Trail in Vermont, which swings from Burlington out onto a causeway far into Lake Champlain.
It was Thompson’s father who helped bring the Elroy-Sparta trail to life, setting in motion a project that revived local communities and became a model for the nation. And it was Dean whose leadership helped secure a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that validated the concept of saving rail corridors.
These trails do more than repurpose land. They restore communities. They promote health, tourism and local business. They give Americans a place to meet as neighbors, not partisans.
To be sure, the trails are rarely made without disagreement. Property rights disputes, funding battles and local opposition can make creating even the shortest path an uphill climb. Repeatedly, though, disagreements have given way to cooperation. It takes work to come together, but the result is worth it.
The story of this movement is told in a one-hour public television documentary, “From Rails to Trails,” premiering Oct. 15. The program chronicles the unlikely coalitions that fought to save abandoned railroads and the people who turned them into something enduring. We are proud to appear in it.
But this story is not finished. Today, many promising trail projects are stalled or underfunded. From the QueensWay in New York to the Great Redwood Trail in California, residents are still working to transform unused corridors into public spaces. The most ambitious of them all — the Great American Rail-Trail, envisioned as a 3,700-mile route connecting Washington, D.C., to Washington state — is halfway complete. In each case, the need is urgent for safer places to walk and bike, new green space for growing cities, and fresh opportunities for local economies.
At a time when the national conversation is polarized, rail trails remind us of another American tradition: cooperation. The railroads helped build our great nation, and today their legacy is helping to reconnect and revitalize it.
Step onto a rail trail in your community, and you’ll see parents teaching children to ride bikes, retirees walking together at sunset and neighbors greeting neighbors. These trails are not red or blue, but green — and they belong to all of us.
About the authors: Tommy Thompson, a Republican, is a former governor of Wisconsin. Howard Dean, a Democrat, is a former governor of Vermont.
