About TRTC
Founded in 1989, the Triangle Rails to Trails Conservancy (TRTC) a state chartered, non-profit organization that accomplishes much of it’s work through volunteer efforts. Its purpose is to work with local and state government officials to preserve local abandoned railroad corridors for future transportation and other interim uses such as recreational trails. Since 1998, TRTC volunteers have put in over 8,800 hours in cleaning up, resurfacing and maintaining the American Tobacco Trail (ATT) in Durham, Chatham and Wake Counties.
Our current focus is supporting safety and signage improvements for the American Tobacco Trail, arranging volunteer projects and providing feedback to local trail managers on problems or proposed changes.
ATT Trail Maps
American Tobacco Trail
(Durham & Greenways PDF)
American Tobacco Trail
(Chatham & Wake Sections PDF)
Latest News
2017 Letter from TRTC
We've been fairly active again this year so wanted give all our trail supporters a brief re-cap of what we did and some of our plans for 2018. Click on this link to open the 2017 LETTER
Work on Improvements at Pittard Sears Trailhead
NC DOT is requiring TRTC to make a number of upgrades to bring the parking and fountain area and the connection trail into compliance with Federal and State disability rules. Starting on September 27th, we moved over 10 cubic yards of crushed aggregates from the...
Request for Public Support–Triangle Bikeway
HELP Support a bikeway along I-40 connecting the Trenton Road Greenway to the Research Triangle Park (RTP) and many other places in the area. Wake County Commissioner Sig Hutchinson was successful in adding the "Triangle Bikeway" along I-40 to a list of projects to be...
Visioning Workshop for Durham Belt Line
Planning for the development of this 2.2 mile rail corridor in downtown Durham as a future rail trail is proceeding. On September 6th, the City will be holding a visioning workshop to solicit public input on this project. The City's new web site for this project...
The Indy 2017 winner for best place to run: The ATT
For more on this see the recent Indy listings of the "best of" facilities around the Triangle area: https://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/best-of-the-triangle-2017-voting-results-health-and-body/BestOf?oid=6595330
Update on Pittard Sears Parking Area
Over the next two years we'll be doing some fairly costly upgrades at this facility to improve access to the trail and to the water fountain. We'll be doing these improvements to bring this facility into compliance with requirements set by NC DOT to carry out the...
First Workday on Culvert Repairs at the Eagle Spur Trail
On January 21st ~16 volunteers gave us great efforts to move 3 large plastic culverts about 3/4 of a mile to spots at the southern end of the trail. Over the next few months we plan to hold several workdays to install them as replacements for 40+ year old metal...
Interesting Article on How Trails Improve Both People’s Health and Community Health
Blog Post from Alta Planning
End of the Year Message from TRTC
We've been active on some trail safety projects and continued our efforts to provide up to date ATT maps and amenities such as our fountain at Pittard Sears and Porta Jon at Scott King. We hope you appreciate these efforts. Give us a wave when you see our volunteers...
Link to New Page with Archived NC Rail-Trails Newsletters
We have recently learned that North Carolina Rail-Trails will be dissolving by early March 2017. It is unclear if any of the content from their website will be available online after that time. TRTC has assisted them in developing web content over the years and we...
Our Fountain at Pittard Sears Road Closed for the Winter
Much colder weather is in the forecast so we shut off and drained the fountain on December 2nd. These newer fountains use lots of plastic parts that are proprietary, quite expensive and easily damaged by a hard freeze. We'll re-open it for the new season in late...
Safety Improvements for O’Kelly Chapel Crossing
During 2016 TRTC has continued efforts to improve the safety at the very busy crossing at O'Kelly Chapel Road. In mid-May our funding resulted in the installation of 3 new signs at each side of the crossing to better alert trail users of actions required as they...