Bike path means smoother ride for Weston cyclists

Cycling is getting safer in Weston.

The Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) finished renovations on the path over the Commuter Rail’s Fitchburg Line at the end of August. The path connects the Massachusetts Central Rail Trail to Jones Road in Waltham, a path often used by cycling commuters, according to Glenn Pransky, the president of the Mass Central Rail Trail Alliance.

“Completing this bridge makes it safe to get across,” he said. “It makes it easier for walkers and bikers, and safer.”

Before the rehabilitation, the bridge had a series of planks set over railroad ties that were difficult to traverse, according to Pransky. The pathway is now paved with a new concrete deck to make it easy for pedestrians and cyclists to use.

Pransky said cyclists wanting to reach Jones Road previously walked their bike across the bridge or would take a route that went around the old town dump, onto Church Street and then up Route 117, a path he says is dangerous due to curving roads and poor visibility.

The renovated bridge path is part of the Massachusetts Central Rail Trail, a larger project that has been in the works for several years. The trail is a proposed 104-mile route following the Central Massachusetts Railroad corridor from Northampton to Boston. The railway line operated from the 1880s through the 1970s, leaving behind miles of abandoned railroad.

Pransky’s organization is one of several groups, including the DCR and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, that have worked to create a multi-use trail along the route and connect the disparate segments that have already been converted to rail trail.

Pranksy said he was excited for cyclists and pedestrians to use the new path, which is one step in his larger goal of seeing the trail complete.

“This was a key barrier because a lot of people looked at that and said, ‘I’m not going to cross that,’” Pransky said. “Having this completed really is a major link.”