FITCHBURG CUTOFF PATH,
CAMBRIDGE/BELMONT

Locations A, B, C in aerial photo

The Fitchburg Cutoff path was designated in the early 1990s by the Metropolitan District Commission and surfaced in stone dust. It provides a useful connection between Alewife Station and Brighton Street, in Belmont, along an abandoned rail line. A convenient, direct connection from Brighton Street to Belmont Center existed until sometime in 2003 or 2004, thanks to an unofficial cut-through from a commercial driveway to Channing Road, a lightly-traveled dead-end street just north of the commuter rail tracks. Unfortunately, a property owner has blocked this off and it is now necessary to walk along the railroad tracks to get to Channing Road. The resulting through route is still much more direct than any route which is entirely on streets, though the path is not rideable when snow is on the ground.

At this time, the path is in poor shape. A bridge is out just west of Alewife Station, so the east end of the path is accessible from the station only via a roundabout route (between locations B and C in the aerial photo) whose entrance is not at all obvious when proceeding from west from the Station . The entrance to the path passes along the north side of a parking garage, and snow pushed off the roof of the garage blocks the route for weeks after other snow has melted. (During that time it is possible to get through by walking through a building's ground-floor corridor -- not at all an obvious choice of a route, though.) There is a plan to reconstruct the bridge.

Vegetation has encroached on the Fitchburg Cutoff path, and its surface has deteriorated over the years. Much of the damage is from off-road motorcyclists who use the path to access wetlands just to its north. The motorcyclists are prohibited from both the path and the wetlands, as indicated by the sign in the photo below. The wording of the sign is somewhat incorrect, as the path is in fact designated for bicycle and pedestrian use. If the path were improved, fewer motorcyclists would be likely to use it, as there would be more legitimate users to monitor and report abuse.