The hARTline replaces a divisive highway trench with an urban greenway for North Hartford, the central segment of a 14-mile bike-walk-transit trail connecting both sides of the river.

The hARTline project is located in the City of Hartford and the Town of Bloomfield. The hARTline would follow the alignment of the Griffin Line (a single-track freight line) from Union Station in Hartford to the town center in Bloomfield. The proposed multi-use trail would be the region’s first protected trail outside of a municipal park and would solve some of the gaps that exist in the East Coast Greenway in the City of Hartford and the Town of Bloomfield.

Existing Conditions

The Griffin Line corridor begins just north of Hartford!s Union Station and terminates at Day Hill Road in Windsor. The State of Connecticut purchased the right-of-way in 1981. It sat dormant until 1994, when the state designated the Central New England Railroad as the new operator. The Griffin Line is a single-track freight line still owned by the State of Connecticut.  Eversource has an easement along the Griffin Line for transmission lines. The easement comprised of two 17’-wide zones, one on each side of the track starting 8’ from the track’s centerline. The easement runs approximately from Woodland Street to the Eversource sub- station located South of Huckleberry Lane, Bloomfield. The corridor passes through some areas of wetlands but is not located within a Natural Diversity Database area of concern.

Purpose & Need

This corridor is critical for the City of Hartford and the Town of Bloomfield. It connects the two municipalities with a much-needed 5.2-mile bike/walk trail. The trail would link Hartford’s downtown business district to Bloomfield’s town center business district. It would serve and enhance a string of urban and suburban neighborhoods along its length, including several in West Hartford. And it would close major gaps in the East Coast Greenway through both Bloomfield and Hartford. Prior trail development in Connecticut has a demonstrated impact in attracting businesses and residents to the state and to certain areas of the region. Most of the trail development has been in suburban and rural communities. This trail will provide a much-needed protected route through several urban neighborhoods. Urban trails around the country, for example, in Atlanta and Charlotte, have demonstrated the catalytic economic impacts of trail systems, which bring new business and economic life to cities, towns, and communities.The Griffin Line runs adjacent and parallel to Homestead Avenue in Hartford, a declining industrial corridor with substantial development opportunities. New investments spurred by the trail can positively affect the full length of North Hartford, which contains some of the most impoverished census tracts in the state.

The trail also lies within a 5-minute walk to over 17 schools, from pre-k through college, and within easy walking and biking distance of hundreds of businesses and employment centers. The trail would provide a sustainable transportation alternative to driving for commuting trips to school and work. By connecting the trail to on-street bike lanes through Hartford’s Arrowhead planning area, the hARTline can also provide residents new access to the Connecticut River waterfront, especially in North Hartford, which has repeatedly been cut off from the river by infrastructure barriers.