West Orange Trail

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The trail runs down the median of Plant Street (old SR 438) in Winter Garden.

The West Orange Trail is a 22-mile (35 km) long multi-use rail trail owned by Orange County Parks and Recreation in Orange County, Florida, in the United States.

It passes through downtown Oakland, Winter Garden, and Apopka. Most of it is built on old railroad alignments.

[edit] The route

From the Lake County line (where a connection to the Lake Minneola Scenic Trail is planned), the trail runs east to downtown Oakland along the former Orange Belt Railway. From Oakland to Winter Garden, the Orange Belt and the Tavares and Gulf Railroad ran right next to each other; the trail uses both rights-of-way. The trail runs through downtown Winter Garden in the median of Plant Street, where the railroad used to run, and leaves downtown on the north side of Plant Street (there SR 438).

At 9th Street, the path curves north (along what had been planned as an extension of 9th Street) away from the old railroad grade, to allow the Florida Central Railroad to continue to serve a customer along the line via a connection from another line. The trail rejoins the railroad grade, but leaves again near SR 429 to avoid a complicated crossing of the freeway. After returning to the railroad grade once again, the trail heads east to Clarcona. At Apopka-Vineland Road, it stays along the west side for a bit and then crosses over to the east side, connecting to a different railroad grade, the old Florida Midland Railroad. A spur to Clarcona Horseman's Park continues along the west side of Apopka-Vineland Road.

The trail continues along the old Florida Midland into Apopka, where the Florida Midland ended after around 1900. A recent extension takes it north along a new alignment, and then along the east side of Rock Springs Road, to end at the intersection with Welch Road. The section through downtown Apopka including a bridge over US 441 opened in June,2007. A future extension is planned east along Welch Road to Wekiwa Springs State Park.

Major sections of the trail are right next to main roads as sidepaths, since the roads were built next to the railroads.

[edit] Grade separations

The bridge over Florida's Turnpike, near the western end, was rehabilitated from a bridge on the Orange Belt Railway line.

The following grade separations are provided or planned:

Florida's Turnpike (old railroad bridge)
SR 429 (underpass built with the freeway)
US 441 (SR 500) in Apopka (pedestrian bridge opened in June 2007 at the cost of 5 million dollars.)