4/27/10--Keeping rivers and streams clean and trash-free

What a nice surprise! I stopped by the Upper Charles Trail on Saturday and found a crew spending Earth Day cleaning up a Hopping Brook, a tributary to the Charles River, and the Upper Charles Trail between Hopping Brook Road and South Street. Some may know that this section of the rail trail was recently purchased by the Town of Holliston in November 2009. While Trail Committee members and volunteers have been performing trail cleanups of this section of the Trail since November, none have performed a cleanup to the extent that this volunteer group did. The group was organized by Melissa Simoncini, New England Waterworks Association’s Young Professional Committee as part of a National River Cleanup™. The website for the National River Cleanup™ organization states that “millions of tons of trash end up in our nations’s streams each year.” The National River Cleanup™ has reportedly cleaned up 1,000 tons of litter and debris from America’s rivers and streams since 1991.

The disturbing part of the cleanup is that much of the litter was recent, including a car battery, car parts, motor oil containers, gas cans, tires, swing sets, and of course plenty of beer cans, trash and other household litter. Hopefully, as the Trail is used more frequently by law-abiding citizens, the littering and dumping will decrease, and our rivers and streams will be cleaner for it. The Holliston Trails Committee sends out a sincere thank you to New England Waterworks Association and especially to the very ambitious Young Professional Committee for their hard work cleaning up Hopping Brook and the Upper Charles Trail.

The volunteers for the Holliston section as pictured include Melissa Simoncini, Tara McManus, Lou Soracco, Iseult Kavanagh and some canine assistants. There were four other members helping to cleanup the nearby rivers.

1/11/10--Updating the status of our efforts to purchase the land for the rail trail.

The Upper Charles Trail is a proposed Rail Trail of approximately 20 miles in length that will connect the towns of Sherborn, Holliston, Milford , Hopkinton, and Ashland . The Trail in Holliston is 6.7 miles stretching from the Sherborn to Milford town lines. The Trail will primarily be an off-road multi-use path separated from traffic. It is planned to be built as a fully accessible trail to accommodate a variety of non-motorized uses such as bicycling, walking, jogging, cross-country skiing, and skating. On an average weekend day, the fully built trail would serve an estimated 2,500 users. Milford has constructed its first phase of 3.5 miles and is currently under construction for its second phase that connects to the towns of Holliston and Hopkinton.

The Town of Holliston currently owns or leases approximately 2.6 miles of the railbed located between Cross Street and South Street . The Trail is not currently open to the public and is damaged in sections by illegal use by motorized vehicles or by flooding. The Town is planning to repair the damage to the section between South Street and Hopping Brook Road in early 2010. The repair will allow for limited use until permanent improvements are made farther off in the future. This section does not have parking available in the immediate vicinity. The nearest available parking is at the Weston Pond Conservation and Recreation Area. Motorized vehicles are not permitted on the Trail, except for authorized users for policing or maintenance. Please report illicit motorized use to the Holliston Police at 508 429-1212.

Section owned by the Town of Holliston between South Street and Hopping Brook Road .

Bridge within section owned by the Town of Holliston between South Street and Hopping Brook Road.

10/25/09--Holliston working to protect rail trail

04/30/09--Plans for Holliston Rail Trail finally clear a hitch

Successful Trail Cleaning. Participants included memebers of the rail trail and those interested individuals who left their contact info at Holliston day. Saturday, December 5, was another successful trail clean up. Thank you all for helping with brush clearing in preparation for the first phase of the trail.

Welcome.  Here you'll find the latest information on the Holliston section of the proposed Upper Charles Multi-Use Trail, a state-funded project to convert a 20-mile, abandoned rail bed in five communities into a scenic, recreational path for bicycling, walking, cross-country skiing, roller-blading, and other non-motorized uses.

Since 1997, Holliston has been in negotiations with Jacksonville, Fla.-based CSX

Download Part 1 of the Holliston Rail Trail video here  

Download Part 2 of the Holliston Rail Trail video here   

Haven't got a media player?  Download one here.       

Get the big picture.  Click below to view the NEW trail map. 

See the results of the public survey.