In 2021, Janet Li, a cycling enthusiast, moved to Durham from Michigan where she says the bike infrastructure was “nonexistent.”
“The weather is more amenable to bicycling without the snow for many months of the year,” Li says. “So I do bike more than I used to.”
Since landing in Durham, Li occasionally participates in public meetings and events hosted by Bike Durham, a local transit advocacy nonprofit, when time permits, to show support for bike and pedestrian infrastructure projects.
Li was on-hand with her husband at the downtown Durham library for a public meeting last week to get a first look at the new designs for the Durham-to-Roxboro Rail Trail, an initiative to build 18-miles of multi-use path on an inactive rail corridor within Durham County. This proposed trail would ultimately establish a 26-mile trail network linking downtown Durham to neighboring Roxboro. The project is in the design phase and it’s too early to say when it might be ready to use.
The project is a collaboration between five local organizations: Durham County, Triangle West Transportation Planning Organization (TWTPO), City of Durham Parks and Recreation, North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT), and East Coast Greenway Alliance.
At the meeting, drafts of the designs laid out a possible pathway that connects the rail trail from downtown toward Braggtown and historic Stagville on the way to Bahama and Rougemont. It would also link up with a network of other existing trail lines like the Mountains-to-Sea Trail and the Ellerbe Creek Trail, as well as future trails being developed by the East Coast Greenway Alliance.
“This project would help connect underserved communities north of 85 to the downtown area, which would be incredible for Durham,” says Holly Waterman, landscape and design planner with Destination by Design, the North Carolina-based architectural design firm that the city and county hired to map out the potential trail.
The railway ceased operations in the 1980s. Multiple attempts, dating back to 1991, have been made by local municipalities to purchase the land from Norfolk Southern. Only recently did the railroad company decide it was the right moment to sell the former railway.
Late last month, the Durham-to-Roxboro Rail Trail project received a much-needed funding bump for land acquisition along the proposed corridor, clearing one of the biggest hurdles for the project’s success.
On July 31, Governor Josh Stein announced $11 million from the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources for trail development and restoration projects in the Piedmont region. Durham received over a million dollars, including $500,000 to the City of Durham for American Tobacco Trail (ATT) maintenance, $137,092 to Triangle Land Conservancy for the Old Creedmoor Trail System, and $500,000 to Durham County for land acquisition on the future Durham-to-Roxboro Rail Trail corridor. The new funding will help local stakeholders acquire the unused railway property from Norfolk Southern Railway to build the rail trail.
Residents interested in learning more about the Durham-to-Roxboro Rail Trail can attend two more workshops this month before final plan development begins: At 6 p.m. on August 27 at Edison Johnson Recreation Center, and 6 p.m. on August 28 at Spruce Pine Lodge.
The Durham-to-Roxboro Rail Trail isn’t the only new multi-use path local officials hope to bring online in the near future. The confusingly-named Durham Rail Trail, originally called the Durham Belt Line, is a 1.8-mile trail through downtown Durham and has been in the works for decades. Durham city council approved a plan for the trail in 2018 after purchasing the land from The Conservation Fund.
In 2024, local officials approved design and construction funding for the Durham Rail Trail. Construction is expected to begin in 2026, and the trail to be rider ready by 2028. Li, who lives near the future rail trail site, says she looks forward to having more routes to bike through Durham safely.
“That’s been so exciting for me,” Li says. “That would be a new way for me to get from where I live downtown, especially because there’s a couple crossings on my way downtown that are a little scary, mainly Mangum and Roxboro. I feel like I’m risking my life.”
As optimistic as Li and other residents are about the myriad rail trails on the horizon, others bemoan the lengthy timelines that have kept eager pedestrians and riders from traversing the new routes. Chris Perelstein, known for his “Reckless Roxboro” traffic safety project, looked on enthusiastically at the designs laid out in the library hallway. He says the city could do more to speed up the process.
“It would be great for the next generation,” says Chris Perelstein. “We should definitely do it, but I would like to enjoy it in our lifetime.”
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