Manhattan has the High Line.

Poughkeepsie has The Walkway Over the Hudson.

The City of Beacon has the Beacon Line.

The Beacon Line Project is a long term advocacy group centered on finding ways to use this relic of Beacon's industrial past. Whether light rail, trolley, hiking, biking, alone or in combination, the Beacon Line Project aims to draw attention to the line and potential plans for its use and to keep the drum beat alive until one vision or another is realized.

Click on the tabs below, each one a link to an outline of an idea for the Beacon Line's potential use. Which vision should dominate?

Contact us at the Beacon Line Project to submit your own ideas or to contribute in other ways to the worthy cause. The only vision that is not acceptable is the current status quo: that a potent transportation alternative, owned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority no less, should run right through our city, and simply lie fallow.

Light Rail Transit Plan Spur Alternatives Biking/ Scenic Walk Plan Rail-with-Trail Alternative Who We Are

Rail-with-trail is the idea of a recreational trail running along a working but very rarely used rail line. The concept is not new or radical, it is a widely used concept in the USA with plenty of legal precedent and experience: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rails_with_trails.

To get it to work, make the Beacon Line a legal subsection of the T.O.D. zoning and rules. Get the MTA to concede to a rail-with-trail scheme for the Beacon Line from the Klara Sauer Trail to Churchill Street (and beyond?).

Notes and Issues:

  • Big return for very little investment. A little grading and signage.
  • Grading: since its a rail line, its already graded, only the little linkages need to be smoothed out.
  • Fill: past talk has concerned putting fill in between the existing rails. However, it might be superior, to avoid bikers being perched precariously on a narrow ridge, to actually run the trail to the side, filling in the small ditch. Specifically, to the left side of the tracks the entire way (facing Beacon bound) so the trail never actually crosses or touches the tracks. The MTA will take exception to running a trail so close to the tracks. However, they have already accepted this arrangement with the Klara Sauer Trail, which already hugs the tracks:
  • Drainage: there are implications with using the ditch rather than perching the trail on the rails, but a cursory survey reveals nothing expensive or prohibitory.
  • Sight Lines: Maybe some warnings/ railing in a few spots with rapid drop offs to the Hudson River or MetroNorth tracks.
  • Signage: Directions and maps mostly, but the trail intersects no streets until Churchill Street, where the trail should probably end (for now, maybe go to Fishkill and Hopewell Junction/ the Dutchess Rail Trail someday)
  • Crosses no streets/ uses no rail bridges. However, you skirt the shoulder of two streets briefly:
    1. Tioranda/ South Avenue: You need lots of signage, road surface markings and maybe even permanent traffic cones. You have a heavy confluence of bikers, walkers, and cars intersecting in the sharp cornered, narrow, zero visibility gap under the railroad bridge on the way to/ from Madam Brett Park.
    2. Dennings Avenue: You are already past the Beacon Institute's security gate and don't have to worry about cars. If Dia is involved, the main concern is warning people from turning onto the MetroNorth tracks, which are immediately adjacent with no security barriers at the Beacon Institute's parking area.
  • The old dump site: is this a zoning challenge in terms of environmental regulations? The trail barely touches the land on that parcel, this may not be a problem at all.
  • Make Dennings Point/ Madam Brett bike friendly? This will require grading and sight lines so as to avoid fast bike/ slow hiker kerfuffles. Not necessary, but a nice touch.