On Christmas morning last year, State Senator Will Brownsberger went out for a run and found the restored Linden Street Bridge open. He wrote on his website that the bridge was "my favorite gift of the day." By then the Department of Conservation and Recreation had already finished the bridge. It had stayed closed for months while a custom-fabricated safety fence was made and installed.
The Waltham Times reported the opening on Dec. 24, 2025. The bridge had been closed since an access ramp collapsed in 2023. Once it reopened, the three miles of the Mass Central Rail Trail between Route 117 and Beaver Street became usable from end to end.
This is the trail's first full fall as a single path, and it still ends at the city limits on both sides. The Weston link depends on a highway bridge. The Belmont link depends on a path that is still being bid and designed. Both are scheduled years out. Until then, Waltham's rail trail mostly connects Waltham to itself: its hilltop park, its brook reservation, its murals and its old station.
What the Linden Street Bridge joined together
The Linden Street Bridge carries the path over Route 60. DCR describes the 2025 rehabilitation as the work that connected "the two parts of the MCRT Waltham," the three-mile stretch the city completed in 2023 from Beaver Street to Route 117 at Hillside Road. Brownsberger described the result as an off-road connection from Beaver Brook, near the Belmont and Watertown lines, almost to Route 95.
The Mass Central Rail Trail's Waltham guide lists the crossings with mileage. Counting west from the Beaver Street entrance, its numbers work out to roughly:
- Beaver Street entrance, by the Fitchburg Line tracks
- Linden Street Bridge, about 0.7 mile in
- Middlesex Court, about 1 mile
- Lyman Street crossing, about 1.4 miles
- Lexington Street crossing, about 1.7 miles, next to the Waltham Police and DPW
- Hammond Street crossing, about 2.2 miles
- Prospect Hill crossing, about 2.5 miles, with the path continuing west to Route 117/Main Street
Before last December, the closed bridge cut that line in two between Middlesex Court and Beaver Street. Now a walk from Lexington Street to the Eager Beaver Trail stays off the road the whole way.
The west edge waits on a highway bridge
The paved path ends at Main Street, which is also Route 117. DCR completed a half-mile on the far side of I-95 in 2025, running from Jones Road to the old railroad bridge at the Weston line. That piece connects to the five-mile Weston–Wayland segment DCR opened in 2019. The gap is the highway crossing itself.
According to the Waltham Times in July, DCR has no plans to repair the abandoned railroad bridge over I-95 because it needs extensive work. Some cyclists already use it anyway. Users have reported poison ivy near the track and a steep drop-off along part of it. The official route crosses I-95 on the Route 117/Main Street bridge, then turns left onto Jones Road to pick up the trail. The trail group's mile-by-mile guide still sends riders over the old railroad bridge with a "walk your bike" caution, but DCR's route is the Main Street bridge.
Waltham's West End road plans will change this crossing in stages:
- July 2026: The Green Street connector was due to go out to bid. It extends Green Street from Main Street, just west of I-95, down to the Weston Street highway exit, and adds a shared walking and biking path.
- 2028 or 2029: The Waltham Times reported this as Green Street's expected completion window in June. That is a later and wider window than the September 2028 target the paper reported in February. When it is finished, trail users will be able to take Green Street's 10-foot bike and pedestrian lane toward the Weston arm of the trail instead of Jones Road.
- By 2030: MassDOT aims to start construction on a redesigned Route 117 bridge over the highway. That state-funded project has just begun its design phase, and completion is projected for 2031 or 2032.
Green Street is budgeted at $30 million, with $15 million in state grants and BXP Inc. agreeing to cover the rest. VHB designed the road so a signal could be added later at the old railroad bridge, because DCR has said it hopes to redevelop that bridge someday. DCR has not set a timeline.
The east edge waits on Beaver Street and Belmont
At the other end, the path stops at Beaver Street, which is the eastern boundary of DCR's lease on the old rail corridor. The next local step is a shared-use path along Beaver Street itself. The plan covers the stretch between Waverley Oaks Road and Clematis Avenue: a 10-foot path on the north side, a rebuilt sidewalk on the south side, resurfacing, and improvements at the MBTA crossing. The Conservation Commission issued a negative determination in January, and the Waltham Times reported that other city boards still had to approve it.
East of Waltham, the planned link is the Belmont Community Path, which Belmont is building in two phases and which does not yet reach the city line.
Phase 1 runs from the Fitchburg Cutoff Path at the Cambridge line to the Clark Street bridge. The Belmont Voice reported in August that the Select Board had secured the last acquisition rights. The bid advertisement was set for Sept. 5, with a contractor expected to be chosen in late fall or early winter. State and federal transportation funds cover construction. The Belmontonian has given a tentative opening in mid-summer 2029.
Phase 2 is the section that would reach Waltham: about a mile from the Clark Street bridge to the city line. Belmont's FY2027 Community Preservation Act application asked for $250,000 to match $1 million earmarked for design. The application says the route is still being evaluated and needs Select Board approval. No construction schedule has been published for that mile.
The Weston link depends on Green Street at the end of this decade and a new Route 117 bridge in the early 2030s. The Belmont link depends on a first phase that does not yet reach Waltham. The three miles in between are complete now.
Where the three miles lead inside Waltham
Because the path doesn't connect out of the city yet, its value lies in the places it links within Waltham.
Prospect Hill Park is just off Lunda Street from the trail. The trail organization describes 273 acres of footpaths with overlooks of the Boston skyline, plus restrooms and picnic tables.
Beaver Brook Reservation is reached from Beaver Street by the Eager Beaver Trail, which makes the eastern end a good place to switch from pavement to woods.
The Western Greenway is a 12-mile footpath loop beside the trail that links Waltham, Belmont and Lexington. The Waltham Land Trust looks after it.
The path also passes reminders of the railroad and newer art:
- The former Waltham Highlands station still stands. A 2025 history walk covered by the Waltham Times stopped there and at the site of the former Waltham North station.
- David O'Gara's mural at 118 Bacon St. shows the B&M Waltham station, a steam locomotive and the watch factory. The Waltham Times reported that the building's owner commissioned it.
- Sophy Tuttle's native-plant and wildlife mural covers the rear wall of the DCF office at 157 Overland Road and faces the trail. According to the Waltham Times, Beyond Walls introduced the owner to the artist.
Getting on, and what's left this fall
Parking set aside for the trail is limited. The Prospect Hill Road access has a few weekend spaces at 1075 Main Street reserved for residents and veterans. Transit is often easier. DCR lists the Waltham stop on the Fitchburg commuter rail line and the MBTA 70 bus, which stops in Waltham center and on Tower Road at Market Basket. Most MBTA buses carry two bikes on the front rack, and off-peak commuter trains allow bikes.
The Waltham Land Trust has used the path as a meeting place all year. It held a June litter pickup and invasive-plant removal starting from the AutoZone lot at 140 Lexington Street, and a July family nature walk from the same lot heading east toward Lyman Street. In September, 13 people walked the trail to Not Your Average Joe's in the Market Basket complex. The Land Trust's write-up mentions passing the native-wildlife mural and a pet memorial along the way. Its next big event is the Western Greenway 5K trail run and walk on Sunday, Oct. 25, three days after this post is published.
From Beaver Street, the whole off-road route runs about three miles to Route 117. Getting farther west means crossing the Main Street bridge on the road, and that will be the route at least until Green Street opens.
If you're thinking about a home near Waltham's West End or Beaver Street as these trail projects move along, I'm glad to talk through what's planned near a particular street. Let's Connect with Arman Chitchian.
