A PLAN to improve the island's railway trails moved closer to completion this week with the arrival of two consultants whose organisation is responsible for transforming former railroad tracks into a network of trails across the United States.

Jeff Ciabotti and Hugh Morris of the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (RTC) were invited to the island to lend advice to the Bermuda Railway Trail Vision Project. That initiative is being sponsored by the Parks Department and End-to-End, a local charity which hosts an annual event for walkers, runners, bicyclists and watersport enthusiasts.

"We work, essentially, to help communities recycle abandoned rail corridors and turn them into viable community assets ? into trails," explained Mr. Ciabotti. "We're now devoting more time to helping (groups) connect those trails to other community resources and developing them into systems of trails and greenways.

"And what Hugh and I have been working on in the last four or five years is specific, in-depth project work where we go in as sub-consultants of a particular project and help ? whether it's a public planning process; whether it's ideas about design; whether it's ideas about future phase and implementation and management."

In 1998, the Parks Department assumed responsibility of the railway trails from the Department of Works & Engineering. Since then, it has vastly improved the overall condition of the 18 miles of abandoned rail lines and created a draft management plan.

To aid further progress, End-to-End decided to come on board. Discussions were held with the Parks Department and, as a result, $50,000 of the monies generated through this year's End-to-End fund-raiser was donated to the initiative.

"Much of our walking route follows the Bermuda Railway Trail and because of that we wanted to do something for it," said Stephen Davidson, an End-to-End committee member and chairperson of the Bermuda Railway Trail Vision Project.

"What we are doing is providing funding ? through the kind of the support of the End-to-End participants ? to work on a management plan and create a vision for the railroad tracks as they become the railway trail national park.

"There are several phases to this as a project. The first effort is to bring the entire trail up to a standard; the second is to try and figure out a long-term vision for it ? in terms of trail enhancements, in terms of what the community would like to see in it as a park.

"At the end of all that, we will have a management plan that will be submitted to Government, to the Parks Commission, as well as (RTC's) report on possibilities for the future."

According to park planner Drew Pettit, phase one is well on its way.

"The Parks Department has been working very hard, doing whatever we could to bring (the trails) up to a standard where they can actually be used," he explained. "We're coming to the realisation now that we can't do many more improvements ? a couple more bridging lengths maybe, but that's it.

"That's as far as we can take it without looking at a more comprehensive vision. We have several objectives and goals and we're hoping those will translate into an improved management plan but we haven't had input from the public on how they see it. Every management plan needs public consultation, and that's what we're hoping will drive us."

Ironically, RTC had highlighted the Bermuda railway trail in the winter 2001 issue of its magazine, . According to Mr. Morris, ours are exactly the type of paths their members and readership search for when travelling and, he said, the present initiative was right on target.

"What Drew described as far as the process and the parks work that they've done ? which is a really good job up to this point ? is not unlike the normal process that these projects take," he said.

"There's often a three-pronged approach to success. You have to have a strong grassroots support for the project. There needs to be a good public agency identified that help support and will eventually manage/maintain the project. And there needs to be a good plan for how to approach all that. So in that respect, it's very much like a lot of the trails we've worked on."

Added Mr. Ciabotti: "It came to mind today as we were touring the trail with all the disconnected bridges along the way, with its immensity, with the visibility of the ocean and the access to it, that the Florida Keys is a great parallel to this project. In fact, I think one of the things we can do in this situation is bring some of the lessons from that project here and see if they're useful."

All agreed there were many benefits to seeing the railway trails preserved for community use ? to provide open space, encourage public use, thereby preventing sedentary lifestyles, to protect an historic island feature and to safeguard and maintain plants and animals in the area.

To achieve those and other aims, the RTC team spent their time on the island meeting with a number of people ? Government representatives, police, people whose homes lay adjacent to railway trails ? to determine which issues they felt most important.

For Mr. Pettit, the most pressing issue is that the trails are joined as one.

"Right now, they're all separate entities," he said. "If we were to link them from one end to the other, have it interpreted and used as safe public access, it could become the backbone which links all our other parks. I know it sounds corny but, it could actually become the crown jewel of our parks system."

Mr. Ciabotti and Mr. Morris will return in November to attend workshops which will invite residents to share their views on the railway trail. Parks personnel and the Bermuda Railway Trail Vision Project are hoping to present the amended management plant to Government for approval, early next year.

4 For more information on the Rails to Trails Conservancy, visit www.railtrails.org