The Dutchess Rail Trail is a rail trail that stretches from the former Hopewell Junction train depot, north to the

Poughkeepsie Poughkeepsie ( ), officially the City of Poughkeepsie, separate from the Town of Poughkeepsie around it) is a city in the U.S. state of New York. It is the county seat of Dutchess County, with a 2020 census population of 31,577. Poughkeepsie ...

entrance of the Walkway over the Hudson. It's a shared use rail trail open for pedestrians and bicyclers. The Dutchess Rail Trail forms part of the Empire State Trail. Construction was initially set to begin in July 2007. It was built in five phases. The final stage from Morgan lake in the Town of Poughkeepsie to the Walkway over the Hudson was completed in July 2013. Conrail's

Maybrook Line The Maybrook Line was a line of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad which connected with its Waterbury Branch in Derby, Connecticut, and its Maybrook Yard in Maybrook, New York, where it interchanged with other carriers. It was the ma ...

was double tracked, allowing for a simultaneous paved and packed dirt trail. In January 2012, a 1-mile stretch of property was purchased from CSX Transportation. An effort was made to develop this stretch of property in 2013, resulting in connections with Walkway Over the Hudson and the

Hudson Valley Rail Trail The Hudson Valley Rail Trail is a paved east–west rail trail in the town of Lloyd in Ulster County, New York, stretching from the Hudson River through the hamlet of Highland. The trail was originally part of the Poughkeepsie Bridge Route, a ...

.Poughkeepsie Journal, January 18, 2012
Walkway Over the Hudson to be connected to Dutchess Rail Trail. The railroad line was built in 1892 by the

Central New England Railway The Central New England Railway was a railroad from Hartford, Connecticut, and Springfield, Massachusetts, west across northern Connecticut and across the Hudson River on the Poughkeepsie Bridge to Maybrook, New York. It was part of the Poughkee ...

; it was severed by a fire on the

Poughkeepsie Bridge The Walkway over the Hudson (also known as the Poughkeepsie Bridge, Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge, Poughkeepsie–Highland Railroad Bridge, and High Bridge) is a steel cantilever bridge spanning the Hudson River between Poughkeepsie, New York ...

on May 8, 1974. Dutchess County originally purchased the Maybrook Line to build a limited access highway to Interstate 84 but did not want to pay the monetary and environmental costs of connecting from Hopewell Junction to I-84. This trail, the

Maybrook Trailway Maybrook is a village in Orange County, New York, United States. The population was 3,150 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Poughkeepsie– Newburgh– Middletown, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area as well as the larger New York– ...

, was later completed in 2020 as part of the Empire State Trail project.

References

External links

Dutchess Rail Trail Map
{{Rail trails in New York Parks in Dutchess County, New York Tourist attractions in Poughkeepsie, New York