EMERGING RAIL-TRAILS
PHOTOS: (Left) Construction began on Brownsville’s West Rail Trail in October 2021; (inset) Residents protest plans to build a high-speed tollway in the former railroad corridor; (below) The 6.6-mile rail-trail will traverse the city’s western residential neighborhoods.
the neighborhood, Sanchez began organizing community meetings to talk about the project and devise a plan of action. “We wanted some - thing that would benefit everyone,” she said of the community’s vision for the old railroad corridor. “We wanted a bike-and-hike trail that would connect to other trails.” To make the community’s wishes clear, the determined group, which would become known as the Friends of the West Rail Trail, gathered more than 5,000 signa - tures from neighbors and other city residents farther afield who would also be able to use the trail once it tied into the existing trail system. In 2012, after years of persistent push - back from the community, plans for the tollway were scrapped. The group also flexed their power
Texas’ West Rail Trail A project more than a decade in the making, Brownsville’s West Rail Trail becomes a reality thanks to a united and unwavering grassroots movement.
politically, helping to elect local officials—like Cameron County
BY LAURA STARK
Commissioner Joey Lopez, a lifelong Brownsville resident living just blocks from the rail corridor—who were sympathetic to their cause. Eventu - ally, a compromise was reached with the county allowing the city to transform most of the 8-mile route into the West Rail Trail and use 2 miles of the rail corridor for a road. With $8 million from the city’s American Rescue Plan funds and additional support from the federal Transportation Alternatives program, work started at long last in October 2021 after approval from the Texas Department of Transportation. “We were a small group fighting such a big entity, so I tell the kids when I teach that if you believe in something—no matter how small you are—don’t ever think you don’t have a voice,” said Sanchez. “Don’t ever give up. If you stick with it, you can be successful.” The paved pathway, spanning 6.6 miles, will run from the north end of town near the 77 Flea Market, a
At the southern tip of Texas, the neighborhoods of west Brownsville are quiet and close-knit with unpretentious, single-story homes along tree-lined streets. It seems unimaginable now, but in 2008, plans were underway to turn a disused railroad corridor that ran north-south through the community into a raucous, high-speed tollway just steps away from residents’ backyards. “The railroad went through the city for 100 years,” said Brownsville City Commissioner Rose Gowen. “It divided west Brownsville. When plans began to remove the rail out of town, the city and county worked with Union Pacific to accomplish that, and ownership of the corridor was transferred to the county.” When letters went out to home - owners to inform them of a decision to convert the rail corridor into an elevated tollway—a project largely advanced by the Cameron County
Regional Mobility Authority—they were not written in Spanish despite 90% of Brownsville residents being Hispanic, nor was Spanish transla - tion provided at initial public meet - ings about the project. “We live in an older section of Brownsville—the poor side of town,” said Brownsville resident Susana Sanchez. “They treated us like we didn’t know any better for our city, and they were just there to tell us what they were going to do.” When blueprints of the planned tollway were unveiled, residents were aghast. Sanchez remembers walking among the displays and hearing a growing murmur of un - ease sweeping through the crowd. It was then that Sanchez, an elemen - tary school teacher, found herself suddenly—and quite unexpectedly— becoming a leader in a grassroots movement to stop the project. “It felt like David and Goliath,” she recalled. Going door-to-door throughout
PROPOSED TRAIL: West Rail Trail LOCATION: The rail-trail will extend from Palm Boulevard to just north of the 77 Flea Market in the western neighborhoods of Brownsville, a city at the southern tip of Texas, adjacent to the Mexican border. USED RAILROAD CORRIDOR: Union Pacific Railroad
LENGTH: 6.6 miles SURFACE: Asphalt
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RAILS TO TRAILS FALL 2022
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