The persistence and hard work of the Friends of the West Trail and certain dedicated public officials paid off Friday afternoon with the ceremonial opening of the West Rail Trail along former Union Pacific railroad right-of-way donated by Cameron County for the project.
The event took place in Oliveira Park in West Brownsville, drawing city and county officials, FWRT members, representatives from the companies that designed and built the trail, and other supporters. The ceremonial groundbreaking for the took place on Oct. 29, 2021. The roughly 6.7-mile trail connects Palm Boulevard to I-69E via Railroad Street.
Speakers Friday’s ceremony included Cameron County Judge Eddie Trevino Jr., who noted that the project was born out of the West Rail Relocation Project, which moved Union Pacific tracks to the west of the city to eliminated traffic congestion and other problems caused by trains in the middle of town. Fourteen at-grade rail crossings were eliminated when the tracks were pulled out in August 2015, he said.
Trevino said that negotiating an agreement with the city of Brownsville for the handover of the right-of-way was among his first priorities as a newly elected county judge. He thank former mayor Tony Martinez, the Brownsville city commissioners and “the hammer, the nail and the energy, Commissioner Rose Gowen.”
Trevino also singled out FWRT for praise, noting that “it’s all because of the vision of the Friends of the West Rail Trail and their commitment to make sure that this happened.”
He also thanked officials with the city and county who worked together to make it happen.
“I’m very glad that the leadership of the county and the city were able to come together and move this project off the ground,” he said.
Larry Hollmann, a West Brownsville resident and FWRT member from the beginning recalled that the project “started out as a nightmare for us” since the original proposal for the right-of-way, once the tracks were pulled out, was to turn it into a high-speed, limited access toll road through West Brownsville.
FWRT saw to it that that didn’t happen, a battle that began in 2008.
“This was an odyssey,” he said. “We did block walks. We did town hall meetings. We had two 5,000-signature petitions.”
Hollman thanked a long list of individuals for making the project possible, including city and county personnel.
Gowen, who has made the West Rail Trail and the larger network it’s part of, Caracara Trails, a priority as commissioner, credited Martinez with leading the charge to remove the toll-road proposal from the Brownsville Metropolitan Planning Organization’s “wish list.” Mark Lund, former director of the Brownsville MPO, which was merged into the Rio Grande Valley MPO in 2019, was instrumental in crafting the dialogue needed to move the trail project forward, Gowen said.
She also sounded a note of caution for trail users.
“Be careful because still some very important pieces missing,” Gowen said. “Those are the crossing lights, especially at the major intersections, Ruben Torres and Alton Gloor specifically. So be very careful while you’re using the trail while you cross those intersections. And if you’re driving, be sure and look at the trail crossing and stop if there’s someone waiting to cross. Those lights may not be in until January or February.”
