DUKE BELTLINE & DURHAM-TIMBERLAKE TRAIL
| There are two inactive and connecting rail corridors in Durham and Person County. The Duke Beltline is a corridor that encircles downtown Durham. This stretches almost 2 miles (between Blackwell St. and Avondale Drive). The Durham-Timberlake corridor goes north to Timberlake, and equals about 23 miles. When put together, they are sometimes known as the '501 corridor.'
For years, local governments and organizations (including TRTC) have dreamt of using these corridors for trails, mass transit, or a combination of both. If these corridors were to become rail-trails or a 'rails with trails', possible names for them would be the Duke Beltline & Durham-Timberlake Trails. Norfolk-Southern (which owns most of these corridors) and NCDOT entered negotiations for purchase of both corridors in 2005. As of June 2005, Norfolk-Southern withdrew its offer to sell the Durham-Timberlake line. Negotiations are still ongoing for the Duke Beltline. The hope is that NCDOT can one day 'railbank' the corridors, i.e. protect them from future encroachment. They could then lease them to local governments for development of interim trails. Click below for more background and updates on these projects. We have collected a few pictures from this corridor. See our 501 Corridor photos page to see a few of the places this corridor passes through. The documents below are in the Portable Document Format (PDF). We have developed a simplified map of both corridors. Also available is a larger map of the 501 corridor and the ATT. If you want to join our e-mail list and receive the latest updates on the status of the rail corridor, click into our TRTC-Timberlake Trail subscription page. Log in your email address and a password, and you will begin to receive the latest information and actions as they become available. |
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