New Hampshire’s Derry Rail Trail: November 2025 Trail of the Month
For the past four years, Senior Master Patrolman Erin Sullivan of the Derry Police Department has had a standing appointment for a morning stroll. On weekdays during the spring and fall, she meets up with community members on New Hampshire’s Derry Rail Trail—just behind the restored 1800s train depot that now houses a beloved Italian restaurant—and together they set out for a 2-mile walk. Sometimes, residents take the opportunity to discuss specific public safety concerns with Sullivan. Other times, they simply enjoy the exercise and early morning sunshine.
“We found meeting outside and taking the time to walk with community members was a better way to bridge the gap between our officers and the community,” said Sullivan. “Not only are we able to chat with and build a connection with those who attend the walks, but for every other community member we see while we’re out walking, our presence is known in a more positive way.”
About the Derry Rail Trail
New Hampshire’s Derry Rail Trail spans 3.6 miles in Rockingham County, about 40 miles north of Boston. Once the route of the Boston and Maine Railroad, the scenic rail-trail now connects downtown Derry and the Windham Rail Trail, and will soon link to the Londonderry Rail Trail.
Sullivan’s meetups are only one way residents in the town of 35,000 take advantage of the 3.6-mile trail that winds through woods and wetlands before bisecting Derry’s bustling downtown corridor.
In the summer, Wednesdays bring the farmers’ market, and Friday means a food truck fair. Once a month, local moms meet up to reconnect with nature and one another. In the winter, snowmobilers and cross-country skiers enjoy a snowy retreat close to home.
“That trail gets use every season of the year,” said Kevin Gordon, president of the Derry Rail Trail Alliance. He’s been around long enough to remember when the trail, which opened in 2007, was just a rugged path through the woods.
“It had become a dumping ground. There was still a rail or two out there then and piles of wooden cross beams,” he said. “My kids grew up riding their bikes on those dirt trails.”
Three decades later, the paved trail is well-kept by volunteers from the local gardening club and well-loved, too, logging an average of 2,000 users a week. Today Gordon’s daughter is a mother herself, and now enjoys daily jogs along the trail, he said, “and all five of my grandkids love using the trail, too.”
“The trail is a chance to see natural habitat that you can’t get just walking along streets. You see turtles, snakes, herons. It’s beautiful.”
—Cathy McDonald, volunteer for the Derry Rail Trail Alliance
Reconnecting the Region
The Derry Rail Trail follows a route that was once part of the Boston and Maine Railroad, a massive system that linked the markets and ports of Boston with cities and towns throughout New England. At its peak, the B&M maintained a fleet of 1,200 steam locomotives, 2,300 miles of track and almost 30,000 employees.
Currently, the trail connects with the 4.3-mile Windham Rail Trail in the south and will soon meet the Londonderry Rail Trail in the north, which stretches 3.3 miles into Manchester, the state’s most populous city. Eventually, advocates hope this corridor will be a part of the 125-mile Granite State Rail Trail, an uninterrupted route between the Massachusetts and Vermont state borders.
As momentum builds toward a statewide trail, trail use continues to provide a big economic boost to the nation’s fifth smallest state. According to a 2022 report conducted by the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension, just nine of the state’s 27 rail-trails added $18.7 million to New Hampshire’s economy and generated $2.7 million in annual tax revenue.
Back in Derry, local businesses rely on the trail to deliver shoppers and diners directly into the town’s central business district.
“So much stuff happens right next to the rail-trail,” said Gordon, including the weekly farmers market and the annual town fair. Every spring, thousands of competitors race down the trail during the yearly Cheap Marathon (named for its affordable entry fee), which also utilizes the adjacent Windham Rail Trail.
All of this activity makes the trail “a great ecosystem” for Derry, said Beverly Donovan, the town’s economic development director. “It really is the total package of benefits: transportation, recreation, health and the economy.”
Donovan appreciates the trail for “connecting neighbor to neighbor,” but also “connecting visitors to the community,” she said. “Along the way, they can experience beautiful scenery and art and maybe stop for a bite to eat or a coffee. We’re lucky to have such an amazing asset.”
A Safe Place for Recreation
While the trail is a boon for the town’s business community it also provides a much-needed safe place for individual residents to recreate, according to Cathy McDonald, a retired marketing professional who volunteers for the Derry Rail Trail Alliance. As a bedroom community for nearby Boston, Derry is the fourth most populous town in New Hampshire, and the trail provides a quiet, car-free space in a congested area.
The views are an added bonus, McDonald said. “The trail is a chance to see natural habitat that you can’t get just walking along streets. You see turtles, snakes, herons. It’s beautiful.” A couple of years ago, a local charter school installed signage along the trail with QR codes that can be scanned with mobile phones to learn about the local ecosystem.
According to Alex Vogt, a retired New Hampshire Department of Transportation (NHDOT) engineer and frequent trail user, this kind of accessible, uninterrupted space can be difficult to find in the region. “New Hampshire is quite hilly,” he said. “My wife and I are in our seventies, so this is one great place we go quite often. There’s no traffic, and we can go some distance.”
Unsurprisingly, this sense of safety and ease seems to make people calmer, kinder even. “In the car, people can be very aggressive,” McDonald said. “On the trail, people wave and say hello to you.” This kind of community cohesion was why advocates campaigned for the trail in the first place, back in the early 2000s.
“It started with a small group of people, just meeting and talking,” Gordon said. Over a few years, the coalition raised money for the project through small donations and merchandise sales, eventually securing a grant from the town that funded half of the trail conversion project. Community buy-in was strong from the start, Gordon said, and, seventeen years after the first bike tires rolled over its newly paved surface, the trail is supported and maintained by “an incredible group of volunteers.”
The Path Forward
When it comes to the effort to connect the Derry Rail Trail with the Londonderry Rail Trail—while adding another 3.6 miles to the statewide Granite State Rail Trail—the biggest roadblock has been a protracted legal battle over a proposed tunnel that would have safely carried bikers and pedestrians beneath a new six-lane I-93 exit ramp north of downtown.
In 2020, the NHDOT approved the construction of the tunnel but reversed course two years later by proposing a new design, which became known as the “spaghetti loop.” In this design, instead of burrowing under the busy thoroughfare, the trail would deviate more than 1,000 feet from the railbed through a series of steep inclines and sharp turns, delivering users to a daunting intersection across a half-dozen lanes of traffic.
McDonald and other trail advocates worried the intersection would not only endanger trail-goers but deter people from using the trail all together.
“When they came up to a crossing with a six-lane highway,” McDonald said, “most people would just turn back.”
The new design also threatened a unique piece of the state’s railroad heritage, paving over the historical bed of the Manchester and Lawrence Railroad (a branch of the Boston and Maine) that was deemed a historic district by the state in 2009. Opened in 1849, the railroad was an engineering feat, built by Irish immigrants who endured long and punishing days cutting through the granite hillside using only hand tools and blasting powder.
In 2024, the newly formed Committee to Save the Derry Rail Trail and Rails to Trails Conservancy filed a complaint to halt the construction of the new design, while residents spoke out at town hall meetings in favor of restoring the tunnel design. “One community member after another got up to speak,” McDonald recalled. “There were business owners, mothers, kids who ride bicycles.” Everyone waited to see what would become of their beloved trail.
In June 2025, they had reason to celebrate when U.S. District Judge Paul Barbadoro ruled that the new design violated historic preservation protections provided by federal law, a decision that has implications for rail-trails across the country, many of which utilize historic assets. Trail advocates are now in talks with the NHDOT to work out a negotiated resolution.
McDonald says she is relieved by what appears to be a victory for both the community’s past and future. “There’s a whole history that will be preserved” by the decision, she said, “as well as the positivity of the rail-trail. I didn’t want to see that literally cut off by a highway.”
Related Links
Trail Facts
Name: Derry Rail Trail
Used railroad corridor: Boston & Maine Railroad
Trail website: derryrailtrail.org
Length: 3.6 miles
County: Rockingham
Start point/end point: Windham Rail Trail at North Lowell Road and Brown Road (Windham); North High Street between Madden and Ash streets (Derry)
Surface type: Asphalt
Grade: The pathway has the typical flat grade of a rail-trail.
Uses: The trail is available for walking, bicycling, snowmobiling and cross-country skiing. It is wheelchair accessible.
Difficulty: With a paved and level surface, this trail experience suits all ages and abilities.
Getting there: The closest airport, Manchester-Boston Regional Airport (1 Airport Road, Manchester), is about 14 miles away from downtown Derry and the trail. Amtrak’s Downeaster train makes daily stops in Exeter (60 Lincoln St., Exeter), 25 miles from Derry.
Access and parking: Several downtown Derry parking lots are available along or near the trail (from north to south):
- Hood Park (4 Rollins St.)
- Derry Municipal Center (14 Manning St.)
- Abbott Ct. and W. Broadway
- Merchants Row and W. Broadway
To navigate the area with an interactive GIS map, and to see more photos, user reviews and ratings, plus loads of other trip-planning information, visit TrailLink™, RTC’s free trail-finder website.
Rentals: Although bike rentals aren’t available in town, travelers can head about 12 miles south to Goodale’s Bike Shop (14B Broad St., Nashua; 603.882.2111), which offers mountain, road and electric bikes for rent.
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