I'll try and keep this brief- I rode the Van Fleet Trail near Polk City yesterday, and as I was getting ready was apporached by a fellow from a planning commision about the strong possiblity that a new railroad track was going to be constructed 25 yards to the east of the existing Van Fleet Trail. He explained that a couple of public meetings had been held, and only a few local homeowners had showed up. None of them cared where the new rail line was going to be- and the Van Fleet Route was the shortest proposed. The fellow was trying to figure out how to get more people who use the trail to have input, so he was spending the day speaking to people at the Trailhead. This new track would cause many miles of walls to be built sheilding it from the Trail (and thus ruining the veiw along the Trail...), in addition to being used for aound 30 trains a day! This will certainly ruin the veiw of all the critters along the ride...gophers, snakes, gators...etc!).

Here is a link to the website for planning the new route. There is a map, and the route to the far right side of the map (near the center of the page) is the one going right next to our trail. Other colored lines are proposed other routes that can be taken: https://ideas.polkrail.com/

There are places on the website for comments, and the fellow told me that they are all considered- so you don't have to live local to help save the trail. The local planning meetings have all now passed, so giving input through e-mail is now the most direct way to help. I will update as I find out more information on this issue....let's see what we can do to save this fun Trail!

Much as I hate the idea of putting the train next to the Van Feet Trail, the other alternatives are very problematic too. It is Rails to Trails so it was rails first.

The area is very rural. Perhaps people don't mind the train rolling past them from time to time. Great info though. I'll look for more updates.

As described to us by a fellow on the planning commision who was at the trail: The track would be run 25 yards to the east of the entire trail. As a noise prevention measure, the length of it next to the trail would then have a brick wall built high enough to block the veiw of the train (and therefore, everything to the east of the trail). Once the tracks got to full usage, there will be 25 to 30 trains a day using them. This won't do anything to stop the diesel exhuast from those trains.

This isn't a random train every few days, they would pretty much end everything good about the trail and render it useless to train and practice on (lots of Tri folks seem to use it).....

There are a number of other routes available that leave the trail alone and also don't disturb areas where folks are living. The only issue is they are somewhat longer. I can't understand why the plants that have been built and need this route weren't simple built the 30 or so miles closer to where they go on the trains. It looks like one country gets the plants, the next the distribution facility. Everybody gets a peice of the cake...except folks using the trail as intended. It seems stupid to advocate this route...why not just remove the trail entirely and run the tracks where they used to be if they plan to ruin the trail?

Is that an 'alpaca' farm I saw?

YES! Off on the east side? I think they had a small sign with a website posted on the fence.......