Assabet River Rail Trail
The Assabet River Rail Trail is a multi-use path under construction in Marlborough, Hudson, Stow, Maynard, and Acton in Massachusetts. As a conversion of the abandoned Marlborough Branch of the Fitchburg Railroad, it is a rail trail. When completed, the end-to-end length will be 12.5 miles (20.1 km). The right-of-way parallels the Assabet River in the midsection; at the north end it veers north to the South Acton train station, and the south end veers south to Marlborough.
This railroad branch was progressively lengthened, so that it reached from the Acton station to Maynard by 1849, was extended through Stow to Hudson in 1850, and reached its Marlborough terminus in 1855. Decades later, passenger service was discontinued in the reverse fashion, so that Marlborough's service ended in 1930, Hudson and Stow in 1939, and finally Maynard in 1958. The branch continued to provide freight service into the 1960s. The last remaining rails in Acton and North Maynard were removed in 2014.[1]
As of 2013, ARRT is partially paved: from a Route 62 parking lot in north Hudson, southwards to Marlborough. The north end (Acton train station to center of Maynard) is a rough trail. Parts can be managed on a mountain bike while other parts still have the railroad ties and rails in place, thus walkable but not bikeable. Two short sections in Maynard have woodchip fill between the rails. From the west side of Maynard into Stow the trail is a wide dirt road known locally as Track Road - this borders the Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge. The section from a bit west of Sudbury Road in Stow to Route 62 in Hudson cannot be traveled by any means. There are no bridges over the two crossings of the Assabet River and much of this section is private property. See maps and updates at the ARRT website.
Construction of 3.4 miles of the north end (from the Acton train station south and west to White Pond Road, which is at the Maynard:Stow border) is tentatively scheduled to begin in 2016. Preliminary design plans are on the ARRT website. When completed, this will be twelve feet wide paved with cleared shoulders two feet wide.
Between five and ten geocaches are in place along the paved (southwest) part of ARRT.
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Coordinates: 42°23′17.5″N 71°33′55.0″W / 42.388194°N 71.565278°W