The Fitchburg Cutoff Path is a short, unpaved multi-use rail trail located in suburban Boston, Massachusetts.
The 0.8 mile (1.2 km) path runs from Brighton Street in Belmont, Massachusetts to the Alewife station at the northern end of the MBTA Red Line in Cambridge. At its Cambridge terminus, the trail connects with two other multi-use paths—the Minuteman Bikeway and the Cambridge Linear Park, which, in turn, leads to the Somerville Community Path.
The Fitchburg Cutoff Path largely runs through Alewife Brook Reservation, with several side paths through the reservation leading to the Little River and a nearby industrial park. The trail heads are marked by small signs: on the east end, across the street from the Alewife station passenger pickup "kiss and ride" area, and, on the west end, just north of where the MBTA rail line crosses Brighton Street. The west end is served by the MBTA #78 bus, with a stop just south of the railroad tracks.
A $4.67M upgrade for the path, including a new pedestrian bridge at Alewife[1][2] is in process. The path was temporarily closed for construction on September 1, 2010. The new bridge and the eastern part of the path remains closed for the construction of a storm water management wetland near Alewife Station that is expected to be completed in 2013.
The proposed Mass Central Rail-Trail would represent an extension to Northampton, Massachusetts.
The path follows a minor portion of the right-of-way of an abandoned rail line known as the Fitchburg Cutoff or B&M Freight Cutoff (reflecting its acquisition by the Boston and Maine Railroad). The freight cutoff linked the Fitchburg Railroad main line (now the MBTA Fitchburg Line) with the Boston and Lowell Railroad main line (now the MBTA Lowell Line). It ran from the Fitchburg Line near Brighton Street, Belmont, crossed the Lexington and Arlington Railroad at what is now the northwestern corner of Alewife Station, passed through Davis Square (West Somerville), and connected with the Lowell Line at Somerville Junction (with a station at the present-day park near Centre and Woodbine Streets).
The main portion (between Alewife and Somerville Junction) had been constructed by the Boston and Lowell Railroad to connect its main line to the Lexington and Arlington Railroad; the remainder west of Alewife forms what is now known as the Fitchburg Cutoff Path. Except for deviation in the first quarter mile east of Alewife, the right-of-way between Alewife and Davis Square became the underground Red Line (MBTA) extension in the 1980s. Portions of the surface between Alewife and the Lowell Line (including over the Red Line) have been turned into the Cambridge Linear Park and the Somerville Community Path, and the remainder is slated to become an extension of the Community Path.