Bermuda Railway Trail

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Piers from a dismantled railway bridge

The Bermuda Railway Trail is an 18-mile footpath created using the route of the former Bermuda Railway. The railway was a standard-gauge line built in 1931 which crossed the most of the length of Bermuda from St George's in the east to Sandys Parish in the west, on a track twenty-one and a half miles long. However the trackbed was troublesome and attacked by salt and wave, and while the railway provided good service in naval and military transport during the War lasted only until 1948, by which time cars had come to the island and new roads and road bridges had rendered it unnecessary for freight transport.

In 1984, 18 miles of the railway line were dedicated as a public footpath, as the 'Bermuda Railway Trail', to provide a hiking trail, and on some paved portions a cycling trail.[1]

The Bermuda Tourism Department publishes a pamphlet describing the Trail's highlights, which Frommer's travel guide calls one of its "Favourite Bermuda Experiences", extolling its "panoramic seascapes, exotic flora and fauna, and soothing sounds of the island's bird life".[2]

A small Bermuda Railway museum operated in the old Aquarium Railway Station, just east of Flatts Village. The museum closed shortly before the death of the owner in 2011.

References

  1. "Bermuda Railway Trail". Bermuda Dept. of Tourism. http://www.bermudatourism.com/180.aspx. Retrieved December 14, 2008. 
  2. Porter, Darwin & Prince, Danforth (2002). Frommer's Bermuda 2002. New York. pp. 163. ISBN 0-7645-6439-0.