Study Commissioned for New Haven & Northampton Canal Greenway Projects that Completing the Trail Could Reap an Additional $36 to $82 Million for Communities from Northampton to New Haven, Connecticut
Trail leaders will pass data on to Massachusetts and Connecticut DOTs and legislators in both states
An economic impact study commissioned by leaders of the New Haven & Northampton Canal Greenway (NHNCG) estimates that completing the trail could reap an additional $36 to $82 million for communities along the 81-mile, north-south path via new and existing businesses in the tourism industry.
In the report, “Economic Impact Analysis of the New Haven & Northampton Canal Greenway,” prepared by Cambridge Econometrics of Northampton, authors Dan Hodge and Ann Ormsbee indicate that existing bicycle and pedestrian trail users spend an estimated $15.1 million each year.
They estimate that over the next five to fifteen years, users of a completed trail would spend $32 to $54 million annually, helping to support new jobs and new or expanded businesses, placing the overall impact at $68 to $114 million.
Completion of the trail is key because continuous trails attract overnight visitors who spend more in the regions they pass through on food, hotels and inns, bike shops and gift shops.
The existing but incomplete Canal Greenway is estimated to support 166 jobs that pay $9 million in earnings while a completed NHNCG could support 351 to 582 jobs, earning $20 to $33 million in wages.
“I want people from New York and Connecticut to be able to ride to Massachusetts, so those out- of-state dollars come into our state, and vice versa,” Della Penna said. “This report shows that will happen.”
The 36-page economic report also details economic benefits of trail completion of other, interconnecting paths; details segments of the path as well as connecting greenways; provides examples of businesses along the greenway that are already positively impacted; and emphasizes the importance of marketing a completed trail. Data and methodology are also detailed.
To view the report, visit greenwaysolutions.org/n-s-report.
Craig Della Penna, principal of Northeast Greenway Solutions, a trail and greenway advocacy organization, helped raise the $68,000 to fund the report as he is assisting Phillip Eng, interim MassDOT secretary, in learning what the return on investment is for a long trail.
Funders included The Norwottuck Network, Craig and Kathy Della Penna, and Diane Troderman.
Greenway advocates will now present the new impact study to Eng and Kate Fox, executive director of the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism; Garrett Eucalitto, Connecticut’s DOT Commissioner; and Rachel Lenda, director of the Connecticut Office of Tourism.
They will also present the findings to Connecticut’s delegates to the National Bike Summit in Washington, DC, in March 2026 and hope to bring it to the attention of state senators.
The study is the second one in the past year outlining the benefits of completing the two shared-use path greenway systems that pass through Massachusetts and Connecticut.
Last year, a study initiated by the Norwottuck Network assessed the benefits of completing the 104-mile Massachusetts Central Rail Trail, which runs east-west between Boston and Northampton. Authors from Kittelson & Associates, Inc. of Boston and Cambridge Econometrics estimated completion would result in improved general health and wellness and economic benefits would range from $87 to $200-plus million annually.
Sections of both trails are incomplete, and in commissioning both studies, Della Penna said advocates wanted to understand the economics of completing both trails so those benefits can be weighed against cost. “What is the return on investment? What is the ROI?” he asked.
Currently, 70 miles of the trail are officially open on the Mass Central Rail Trail with roughly 20 miles in the planning or construction stages. Eighty percent of the 81 miles of the Canal Greenway are also open.
“Challenging sections of the trails to be completed include areas where bridges are missing, and there are trail segments that will need to be purchased from private owners, and repairs need to be made to a 1,000-foot tunnel near the Wachusett Reservoir,” Della Penna said. “The Mass and Connecticut DOTs will be welcoming of this gift we’ve provided them with. They love data, and this will help them weigh cost to benefit. I know they’re thankful.”
He added, “This will help provide traction to secure funding to finish the rail trail. It’s a benefit to Mass and Connecticut DOTs that we asked these questions.”
Della Penna said the trail systems have been developed over the past 30-plus years and, initially, there wasn’t a thought to connect them, thus the gaps. Knowing that the biggest economic boosts for communities come via continuous long trails, advocates are working to seal those gaps.
“When corridors are incomplete with lots of breaks and unfinished segments, it’s harder to patch together and promote a multi-day, overnight trip,” said Hodge, one of the report’s authors. “Ones that are continuous can encourage, attract and promote the multi-day visits. That’s the most spending per visit—when people are traveling through overnight.”
Steven Mitchell, a former board member for the East Coast Greenway and current president of Bike Walk Connecticut, said, “Findings of the report should be eye-opening for tourism and businesses throughout Connecticut and Massachusetts along the greenway. The potential revenue is great.
“The trail needs to be finished,” he added.
Cambridge Econometrics has been completing economic impact analyses for over 40 years, and the Northampton division has a specialty in trail and greenway studies. Hodge and Ormsbee began working on the most recent impact report in May 2025, completing it on Nov. 6.
Ormsbee, a senior economist at Cambridge Econometrics, said gathering data on trail usage is one key part of preparing the report, and in this case, data collected by the University of Connecticut’s Connecticut Trail Census was particularly useful as it provided up-to-date, monthly data for almost every city and town along the trail.
In Massachusetts, she said the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission and Friends of the Columbia Greenway Rail Trail in Westfield assisted with data collection.
The authors estimated trail use from various perspectives, including local users who might simply be recreating; day visitors travelling to the area who might eat lunch, shop, rent a bike; and overnight travelers staying at a hotel, inn or campground and buying meals.
Estimates on increased usage, job creation and other economic projections were based on benchmarks from other completed corridors and market size.
In addition to outlining tangible benefits of fluidity on the trail systems, Hodge said the report’s value is also found in providing case studies of businesses up and down the canal greenway corridor to show how actual businesses located near the corridor—cafes, bike shops, and a climbing gym in New Haven among them—are benefitting already.
“It’s valuable to show actual businesses that benefit from the trail,” Hodge said.
In Massachusetts, Ormsbee said user spending estimates are based on the 2023 Massachusetts Economic Impact of Visitors report, which provides county-level visitor spending by category for Hampshire and Hampden counties.
In Connecticut, the 2023 Economic Impact of Visitors in Connecticut served as the main source for visitor spending.
“Throughout this whole process, we benchmarked our assumptions and results based on completed trails in other parts of the US, and recent studies, such as the Mass Central Rail Trail analysis, to ensure values are as expected and in line with industry standards,” Ormsbee said.
For more information, visit finishtherailtrail.org.
