Many of you are aware that the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail doesn’t end at the Massachusetts border. The trail continues into MA as the Southwick Rail Trail and into Westfield as the Columbia Greenway Rail Trail  where the completed section ends at the Westfield River. The rest of Westfield, and almost all of Southampton until just before the Easthampton town line remains to be completed. The trail is complete in Easthampton and Northampton, where it is called the Manhan Rail Trail.

The Friends of the Southampton Greenway reported on a recent public meeting on the initiative to close the gap in that town:

“On Wednesday November 15th engineers from Tighe & Bond led a Southampton Greenway information session and public forum at the Norris Elementary School. We were thrilled that more than 125 members of the community attended, and there was lots of enthusiasm for the project, along with questions and great suggestions.

“On Friday the 24th the Hampshire Gazette ran a long and very positive article about the event.  For those of you who didn’t see it, the full text [can be found here.]”

The ultimate goal of advocates is to have a fully developed rail-trail that goes from the shore of New Haven, CT into the center of Northampton, MA with a unified name. For more information on this effort, check out nhncg.org.