CT city boosts efforts for trail linking to national greenway. It’s about much more than recreation.

Kenneth R. Gosselin, Hartford Courant

December 17, 2023 at 6:01 AM·9 min read

From the more than century-old rail line in Hartford’s Asylum Hill, it’s hard enough to see a way clear to the office towers downtown, let alone a connection to the city’s riverfront.

But Doug Suisman envisions a path to the city’s Riverside Park and its boathouse that’s maybe a 20-minute walk from Asylum Hill, far less by bicycle.

Suisman, a Hartford native, is the architect behind the $65 million Hartline, a 7-mile greenway between the Bloomfield town line and the Hartford park that would follow the rail line, then city streets and finally a new pedestrian ramp and bridge over Interstate 91 to the Connecticut River.

One key consideration would be how the Hartline, the first urban trail in Connecticut, is built through what is now an active rail corridor, the Griffin Line.

The plan for the Hartline has been percolating for more than two years. Together with iQuilt, a nonprofit Suisman founded whose goal is to make Hartford a more walkable city, Hartline has steadily gained the support of city and state leaders. About $2 million in federal funding will be spent on initial planning, and the city of Hartford will soon receive another $1.5 million from the state to design the rail portion.

At its core, the Hartline is certainly for recreation, but it also has a larger purpose. The Hartline is framed as a way to better connect city neighborhoods and spur sorely-needed economic development along its path by increasing foot traffic. Similar projects in Atlanta, Indianapolis and Washington, D.C. have met with success and have drawn private investment along their routes, Suisman said.

“Your mental map changes”

On a recent day, Suisman and iQuilt’s program manager, Amir Johnson, stood at the rail line near the intersection of Garden Street and Homestead Avenue in Asylum Hill at about what would be the mid-point of the Hartline.

“So just suddenly, there are connections that you wouldn’t normally think of,” Suisman, whose Santa Monica, CA-based urban design firm specializes in sustainable development, said. “Otherwise, you are on city streets with cars and buses. So suddenly, the city feels different. Your mental map changes when you have a trail like this.”

Johnson, who recently graduated from a college in Atlanta and returned to his native Hartford to live and work, got to know well Atanta’s BeltLine, which was built around an unused rail line, and how a similar project could benefit Hartford.

“For people that who live in Hartford, and people who are moving to Hartford having that path or trail that can lead them to explore a new neighborhood is a great way to get people to want to live and work in the city. So instead of driving and parking, it’s something that you decide to do because you’re OK with taking that walk.”

If funding were secured for the Hartline — likely a combination of local, state and federal funding — construction could begin in two years or less and be completed in five years, Suisman said.

The largest section of the Hartline would follow the single-track, state-owned Griffin Line, which was built in the late 1800s and still used to transport freight. For decades, there has been a debate over the future of the rail line, some arguing that it should be used for light passenger rail.

Now, the Hartline is raising the issue again: Should the proposed greenway be a “rails-to-trail” or “rails-with-trail?”

The former would require idling the Griffin Line, but not necessarily removing the track. The latter would mean the trail would have to co-exist with an active rail system.

“We think the trail would be a lot better without the freight on it but we’re designing it so that it can be either,” Suisman said.

The Capitol Region Council of Governments, a regional planning agency, also has been looking at how the Griffin Line would fit into the broader picture of filling in gaps that exist in Hartford area in the East Coast Greenway.

In the Hartford region, notable gaps in the 3,000-mile trail from Maine to Florida exist in Simsbury, Bloomfield, Hartford and East Hartford. The Hartline would fill a crucial gap that exists in Hartford.

Caitlin Palmer, CRCOG ‘s director of regional planning and development, said the planning agency’s study has focused on studying the existing conditions on the Griffin Line and that an active rail line would be part of the equation, at least in the foreseeable future.

If the rail line were not in use, iQuilt’s vision for building the Hartline in the rail corridor would be a more straightforward construction project, Palmer said.

“The harder question to answer is, if geographically this is an interesting or beneficial area for a trail, can you do it if there is still an active train?,” Palmer said. “And so that’s what we’re really exploring. And so far — I don’t want to give any spoilers until we are ready to share our report — but it’s looking possible.”

Palmer said she expects the report in January.

Palmer said she recently was part of a group — including state transportation and city officials, iQuilt and the Central New England Railroad, which currently leases the Griffin Line from the state, to walk a section of the track.

“There’s some definite pinch points in there with existing buildings and infrastructure, so it’s by no means easy,” Palmer said. “And there are bridges that are very constrained. But yeah, I’m excited for our results.”

The state transportation department, which oversees the Griffin Line, said it is supportive of using the corridor in Hartford as a rails-with-trail connection for both pedestrians and bicyclists. The DOT, which included the Hartline in its mobility study recommendations, noted that 61,000 people live within one mile of the Griffin Line corridor, many of whom do not have access to a motor vehicle.

“CTDOT currently leases the corridor to a freight rail operator, who is actively serving multiple private industry customers that move goods and services to and through Connecticut,” a DOT spokesperson said, in a statement. “Any modification of use of the existing Griffin Line would undergo a federal review process by the Surface Transportation Board, and existing commercial uses would be weighed heavily in that review.”

‘People at your back door’

The Hartline is part of the expansive Hartford 400 project. Hartford 400, also designed by Suisman, calls for moving highway interchanges in Hartford and East Hartford and reconnecting Hartford with its riverfront by burying highways in tunnels or capping them, among other things.

But those projects, which dovetail with the early recommendations of the Connecticut Department of Transportation’s Greater Hartford Mobility Study, are likely to take years — if not decades — and cost tens of billions of dollars to build. In contrast, the Hartline is relatively inexpensive and has a shorter timeframe, Suisman said.

The Hartline is divided into three sections: Rail Trail, City Streets and River Link, the pedestrian ramp and bridge over I-91. The trail would be 14 feet wide with space on either side to accommodate trees, plantings and other amenities. It would resemble the area on the north side of downtown Hartford’s Bushnell Park, Suisman said.

“I think it would also unlock a significant economic development opportunity, especially along the Homestead Avenue corridor,” Bronin said. “We’ve been preparing for that future economic development for a number of years.

“We have acquired a significant number of parcels along the Homestead Avenue corridor so that we would have the ability to capitalize on what could really be a transformative change to the old rail line,” Bronin said.

Bronin estimates that the city owns 30% of the property in the immediate area.

Once the Hartline is built, owners of buildings that faced away from the rail line may find a business opportunity on the rear side of their structures,” Suisman said.

“Suddenly, you have all these people at your back door and you turn it around and you make it your front door,” Suisman said. “And then you get a café, you get housing. That’s what we see in Atlanta. Buildings that were on the rail line and had loading docks now have restaurants because you have people.”

Along the City Streets portion of the Hartline, David Levitz, a part owner in the property at the corner of Edwards and Walnut streets, said the Hartline could be a boost to his efforts to redevelop his property.

“A walking path or a trail combination solves a lot of problems,” Levitz said. “It creates a path to Union Station that is relatively close. That would reduce the walking distance from our property to the train station.”

Critical Hartline junctures

Here are 10 critical junctures along the proposed, 7-mile Hartline pedestrian and bicycle path between the Bloomfield town line and Hartford’s Riverside Park and boathouse.

Photos showing existing conditions are paired with renderings that demonstrate what the Hartline could look like passing through the same areas, if it is constructed as now envisioned. Some of the renderings show potential for development along the Hartline that is separate from the path and are for purposes of illustration. Renderings vary in showing how the Hartline could be built, either on the rails or beside it.

1. Village Apartments at University of Hartford

Hartline section: Rail Trail

Neighborhood: Blue Hills

2. Plainfield Street next to Annie Fisher Montessori School

Hartline section: Rail Trail

Neighborhood: Blue Hills

3. Sigourney Street bridge toward Bloomfield

Hartline section: Rail Trail

Neighborhood: Upper Albany