Chesapeake Beach Rail Trail

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The Chesapeake Beach Rail Trail is a potential regional multi-use trail system that will utilize the original Chesapeake Beach Railroad route from Washington, D.C. to Chesapeake Beach, MD. This corridor will serve as the spine for a number of potential greenway branches. These branches would provide access to public lands, the Patuxent River and the Chesapeake Bay. The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission(M-NCPPC) has acquired portions of the corridor through the subdivision process. The trail would be owned, managed, and maintained by M-NCPPC. The Chesapeake Beach Rail Trail is being considered in Calvert and Anne Arundel counties where several segments of the 28-mile rail corridor also exist. Eleven miles of the corridor lie in Prince George’s County.

Calvert county recently acquired a 100-acre tract adjacent to Fishing Creek and the town of Chesapeake Beach which contains 1,800 feet of the railroad right-of-way. This property, renamed Fishing Creek Park, is adjacent to the terminus of the trail at Chesapeake Railroad Museum. Plans are underway to develop this portion of the trail and connect it to residential communities within the vicinity, providing off-road access to the towns of Chesapeake Beach and North Beach and their in-town boardwalks and trails. In September 2004, the state of Maryland committed $1.6 million for costruction of the first 1.4 miles of trail. Construction for the trail was scheduled to begin fall 2005 and open for recreational use by summer 2006.

In Anne Arundel County the trail would connect Walker Mill Regional Park and Jug Bay Wetlands Sanctuary. It would also connect to the south with the town of Chesapeake Beach.