The Chrysler Canada Greenway is a

rail trail A rail trail or railway walk is a shared-use path on a Right of way#Rail right of way, railway right of way. Rail trails are typically constructed after a railway has been abandoned and the track has been removed but may also share the rail corr ...

Essex County, Ontario Essex County is a primarily rural county in Southwestern Ontario, Canada comprising seven municipalities: Amherstburg, Kingsville, Ontario, Kingsville, Lakeshore, Ontario, Lakeshore, LaSalle, Ontario, LaSalle, Leamington, Ontario, Leamington, Tec ...

, Canada, between Oldcastle (near

Windsor Windsor may refer to: Places *Detroit–Windsor, Michigan-Ontario, USA-Canada, North America; a cross-border metropolitan region Australia New South Wales *Windsor, New South Wales ** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area Queen ...

) and Leamington.

History

The trail follows the route of a former railway branch line from

Windsor, Ontario Windsor ( ) is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada. It is situated on the south bank of the Detroit River directly across from the U.S city of Detroit, Detroit, Michigan. Geographically located within but administratively independent of Esse ...

, south and east through Kingsville to

Leamington, Ontario Leamington ( ) is a municipality in Essex County, Ontario, Canada. With a population of 29,680 in the Canada 2021 Census, it forms the second largest urban centre in Windsor-Essex County after Windsor, Ontario. It includes Point Pelee Nationa ...

. The rail line was built by

Hiram Walker Hiram Walker (July 4, 1816 – January 12, 1899) was an American entrepreneur and founder of the Hiram Walker and Sons Ltd. distillery in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Walker was born in East Douglas, Massachusetts, and moved to Detroit in 1838. He p ...

to connect his distillery in Windsor to Kingsville in 1882 and was extended to Leamington in 1889. The rail line operated as the Canadian branch of the

Chesapeake and Ohio Railway The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was a Class I railroad formed in 1869 in Virginia from several smaller Virginia railroads begun in the 19th century. Led by industrialist Collis Potter Huntington, it reached from Virginia's capital city of Rich ...

and by the late 1980s was operated by

CSX Transportation CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad company operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Operating about 21,000 route miles () of track, it is the lead ...

. A portion of the rail line from Windsor to Blenheim was abandoned in 1989, and the rail line was donated to the Essex Region Conservation Authority (ERCA) in 1993. In exchange for naming rights,

Chrysler Canada Stellantis Canada (formerly, FCA Canada, Inc. and Chrysler Canada) is the wholly owned subsidiary of Stellantis through its North American division operating in Canada. Incorporated in 1925, the Chrysler Corporation of Canada acquired a Maxwell ...

provided a $250,000 donation to convert the rail line to a

bike trail A trail, also known as a path or track, is an unpaved lane or a small paved road (though it can also be a route along a navigable waterways) generally not intended for usage by motorized vehicles, usually passing through a natural area. Howe ...

. Work was finished on the trail by 1997, and it opened that year to use. The remainder of the rail line would also be abandoned, and its tracks removed to where they branch from the mainline between

Highgate Highgate is a suburban area of N postcode area, north London in the London Borough of Camden, London Boroughs of Camden, London Borough of Islington, Islington and London Borough of Haringey, Haringey. The area is at the north-eastern corner ...

and

Muirkirk Muirkirk () is a small village in East Ayrshire, southwest Scotland. It is located on the north bank of the River Ayr, between Cumnock and Glenbuck on the A70. Conservation The Muirkirk & North Lowther Uplands Special Protection Area was s ...

. The 1998 ECRA budget included $406,000 to develop the Chrysler Canada Greenway, part of which came from the sale of ravine land. The Harrow Rotary Club provided $40,000 in development costs. The first of the Greenway, between Queen Street in Harrow east to Ferriss Side Road, were opened on 29 May 1998. Along with the rail lines, the ECRA also acquired an 1889 stone train station but did not have the funds to preserve it. Development plans to complete the trail were estimated at $750,000 in late 1998, with a federal grant of $145,000. By 2001,

CN Rail The Canadian National Railway Company () is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN is Canada's largest railway, in terms of both revenue an ...

took note of the popularity of the trail and donated an additional 26-km spur line from

Amherstburg, Ontario Amherstburg is a town near the mouth of the Detroit River in Essex County, Ontario, Canada. In 1796, Fort Malden was established here, stimulating growth in the settlement. The fort has been designated as a National Historic Site. The town ...

Essex, Ontario Essex is a town with a population of 21,216 in Essex County in southwestern Ontario, Canada, whose municipal borders extend to Lake Erie. Essex is also the name of the largest community within the municipality. History The current Town of Ess ...

, a portion of the rail line operated by the

Canada Southern Railway The Canada Southern Railway , also known as CSR, was a railway in southwestern Ontario, Canada, founded on February 28, 1868 as the Erie and Niagara Extension Railway. Its name was changed to Canada Southern Railway on December 24, 1869. The 1868 ...

, which was abolished in 1977. (The rails for this spur, were removed in 1995 and the spur leading from Comber to Leamington removed in 2001, eliminating three at-grade

railroad crossing A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line or the road etc. crossing over or under using an overpass or tunnel. The ...

s on Highway 3). ERCA has stated they intend on converting the new trail from Amhurstburg to Essex as soon as funds become available. There has been no announcements regarding a possible conversion of the Leamington-Comber rail corridor. ERCA,

Ontario Parks Ontario Parks is a branch of the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks in Ontario, Canada, that protects significant natural and cultural resources in a system of parks and protected areas that is sustainable and provides opportuni ...

and

Parks Canada Parks Canada ()Parks Canada is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Parks Canada Agency (). is the agency of the Government of Canada which manages the country's 37 National Parks, three National Marine Co ...

have stated interest on turning the entire abandoned rail corridor from Ruthven to St. Thomas into an extended Chrysler Canada Greenway, linking up with trails in

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

and Simcoe, providing a single long trail corridor from Windsor to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

and Kitchener, and possibly to

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: * Alexander Hamilton (1755/1757–1804), first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States * ''Hamilton'' (musical), a 2015 Broadway musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda ** ''Hamilton'' (al ...

then linking to

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

via the

Waterfront Trail The Great Lakes Waterfront Trail is a signed route of roads and trails in Ontario, Canada, running between Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Sault Ste. Marie and the Quebec border following the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River. The trail connects ov ...

. It is currently unknown if Leamington intends on converting its abandoned rail corridors to trails.

LaSalle, Ontario LaSalle is a town in Essex County, Ontario, Canada. It is a bedroom community of the City of Windsor, part of the Windsor Census Metropolitan Area, and located south of that city. LaSalle, along with Windsor, is the oldest French settlement a ...

, has also expressed its interest and intentions to link the Windsor Trail and its own LaSalle Trail network to the Greenway.

How to travel

The Greenway allows several different modes of transportation:

cycling Cycling, also known as bicycling or biking, is the activity of riding a bicycle or other types of pedal-driven human-powered vehicles such as balance bikes, unicycles, tricycles, and quadricycles. Cycling is practised around the world fo ...

walking Walking (also known as ambulation) is one of the main gaits of terrestrial locomotion among legged animals. Walking is typically slower than running and other gaits. Walking is defined as an " inverted pendulum" gait in which the body vaults o ...

horseback riding Equestrianism (from Latin , , , 'horseman', 'horse'), commonly known as horse riding (Commonwealth English) or horseback riding (American English), includes the disciplines of riding, driving, and vaulting. This broad description includes the u ...

and

cross-country skiing Cross-country skiing is a form of skiing whereby skiers traverse snow-covered terrain without use of ski lifts or other assistance. Cross-country skiing is widely practiced as a sport and recreational activity; however, some still use it as a m ...

Alignment

The trail starts at the junction with Kings Highway 3, with signs to cross at the nearby Walker Road due to the dangerously high levels of traffic. The trail also has an unofficial "extension" which continues 2 km straight to its terminus with North Talbot Road. The Greenway also has five "Community Entrances", three of which (Harrow, Kingsville, and Ruthven) are of "

service center Service may refer to: Activities * Administrative service, a required part of the workload of university faculty * Civil service, the body of employees of a government * Community service, volunteer service for the benefit of a community or a ...

" standards. The Greenway surface is crushed gravel. The route passes through towns and farmland, crossing creeks and connecting 25 woodlots. ''Note: Not all exits are initially listed. more will be added as information is received.''

Extensions

Extensions of the trail are planned. The Municipality of Leamington has expressed interest in converting their abandoned rail lines east of Talbot Road (CR 34) into an extension of the Greenway. Currently, bikes and

farm tractor A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or construction. Most commonly, ...

s have to use dedicated

bike lane Bike lanes (US) or cycle lanes (UK) are types of bikeways (cycleways) with lanes on the roadway for cyclists only. In the United Kingdom, an on-road cycle-lane can be firmly restricted to cycles (marked with a solid white line, entry by motor ...

s along the very busy Talbot Road, and this is dangerous, due to the high speed limit, trucks, hills, and curves. Currently, the parts east of CR 34 are navigable by bike or foot, but it is not recommended, as the brush is quite thick and it may still be private property. The nearly all of the right-of-way along the former

CASO Subdivision from Leamington to a point just east of

Ridgetown Ridgetown is a community located in south-east Chatham-Kent, Ontario, Canada. It is home to the University of Guelph Ridgetown Campus. It has a 2021 population of 2,797 and is one of many small farming communities in Chatham-Kent. The town mott ...

(via Wheatley,

Merlin The Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network (MERLIN) is an interferometer array of radio telescopes spread across England. The array is run from Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire by the University of Manchester on behalf of UK Re ...

, and Blenheim) is intact, and able to be converted into a

, and is either in the process of becoming one, or is in the planning stages. ERCA has expressed its intentions on linking Amherstburg, McGregor, and Essex to the trail network via a 28-km long trail, with an intersection somewhere near McGregor, Ontario. This is already easily done, as ERCA owns the right of way, and a 1-km spur route leads into McGregor from the Greenway. Aside from money, the insane traffic amounts on Highway 3 (which was scheduled to be twinned starting 2007) would pose a significant obstacle, unless the trail was routed along either an overpass/underpass, or through an

intersection In mathematics, the intersection of two or more objects is another object consisting of everything that is contained in all of the objects simultaneously. For example, in Euclidean geometry, when two lines in a plane are not parallel, their ...

Interchange Interchange may refer to: Transport * Interchange (road), a collection of ramps, exits, and entrances between two or more highways * Interchange (freight rail), the transfer of freight cars between railroad companies * Interchange station, a rai ...

, such as with Townline Road (County Road 8). The City of Windsor has also expressed its intentions on linking its bike trail network to the Chrysler Canada Greenway. The most-likely candidate for this would be the

Devonwood Bike Trail The Devonwood Bike Trail is a fairly straight and flat bike trail in the southern end of the city of Windsor, Ontario.{{Cite web , title=Devonwood , url=https://www.citywindsor.ca/residents/parksandforestry/Trails/Pages/Devonwood.aspx , url-sta ...

, which is the farthest-south reaching trail (the closest, with just 3.5 km separating the two), and already connects to an ERCA

conservation area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural or cultural values. Protected areas are those areas in which human presence or the exploitation of natural resources (e.g. firewoo ...

(Devonwood Conservation Area).

References

External links