Travel Q&A: Rail trails provide a look at the past and the present.

Publication: South Florida Sun-Sentinel (via Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service)

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COPYRIGHT 2004 South Florida Sun-Sentinal

Byline: Jean Allen

Q: On driving trips, I have seen places where old railroad rights-of-way have been turned into walking trails. I don't know where these can be found aside from just happening upon them, and would like to know if there is a way to do this. On long drives, I'm always looking for a place to stop the car and do a little walking. Can you give me some information? _Allan B., Pembroke Pines, Fla.

A: You have discovered a growing national system of railroad rights-of-way that have been turned into trails used, depending on their surfaces, by hikers, bikers, rollerbladers, segway riders, horseback riders, and for pushing strollers and wheelchairs.

Railroads once criss-crossed the nation, with trains used for passenger travel or to haul coal, lumber and so on from place to place. When cars, trucks, buses and airplanes came along, train travel was eclipsed by speed. Many of the old routes lay in waste, with commercial developers...

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