Year in review: Merrimack River Greenway Trail makes strides

The decades-long effort to create a continuous hiking trail through Concord as part of a cross-state trail from Salem to Lebanon moved ahead in 2025, although it’s still not certain that it has overcome the complication involving the Scenic RailRiders business.

The big news was the August decision by the City Council to buy the abandoned CSX rail corridor stretching six miles from Horseshoe Pond to the city line. Once the rails are removed by CSX — the steel is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars per mile — the corridor can be groomed and turned into a rail trail as part of the Merrimack River Greenway Trail from Pembroke to Boscawen.

Along with other news, including the decision by businessman James Kenny to donate an easement that will let people walk along the edge of a parking lot between the Sunflower Trail and Loudon Road, this leaves just a short gap in downtown Concord to be determined.

The city’s purchase of the rail corridor, which was abandoned in 2014, has been in the works since 2017. It was stalled when the state intervened and then when CSX bought the previous owner, Pan Am Railways.

The one problem is Scenic RailRiders, the popular business started in 2019 by Gary and Carolyn LeBlanc that provides pedal-operated railcars for people to travel through the woods along a few miles of the line. Their fans hoped that the rails could be left in place and a hiking trail built alongside, but that seems difficult and would probably cost the city more, since CSX is counting on recycling the rails.

As of now, it seems likely that RailRiders will have to leave, but it’s not entirely certain how or when that will happen.

The Merrimack River Greenway trail, when completed, will be part of the proposed Granite State Rail Trail, roughly 125 miles incorporating rail trails and other trails from the Massachusetts line to the Upper Valley.

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