The Trail Behind the Trails Neighborhood Turns 50 and Is Still Being Built

The paved path beside St. Mary's Road has carried redwood lumber, electric interurban trains, a utility easement and, since July 4, 1976, people on foot, on bikes and on horseback. This is its 50th year. Two things are arriving for the anniversary. One is a set of interpretive history panels from the East Bay Regional Park District. The other is a set of city-built paths meant to connect downtown Lafayette to the trail more safely.

Both projects tell the same story. For more than a century this strip of land has been a way to get between Lafayette and Moraga. The trains are gone and the corridor has a new job, but it still does the old one, and in 2026 and 2027 it is being reconnected to the town around it.

1800s to 1957: a freight route long before it was a footpath

The East Bay Regional Park District's trail page says mule trains first used the corridor to carry redwood lumber from Oakland toward Sacramento. Steam and electric railroads followed, running under the Oakland-Antioch and Eastern, San Francisco-Sacramento and Sacramento Northern names. The Lafayette Historical Society's pictorial history dates electric service through the area to 1913. According to the Lafayette–Moraga History Trail site, the line became part of the 183-mile Sacramento Northern electric interurban railway, which it calls one of the longest interurban routes in North America.

That railway had stops in Lafayette. The Historical Society names them as Reliez, West Lafayette, Burton and Glenside. It places the West Lafayette station near Paradise Court, at the end of School Street.

Passenger trains stopped first. Lamorinda Weekly reported that the last scheduled passenger train left the Moraga station on June 22, 1941, and that freight service ended on February 28, 1957. The History Trail site sums up the postwar years briefly: cars and trucks took over, the rails were abandoned, and the corridor became a utility easement.

The easement is what connects the railroad years to the trail years. EBRPD says the trail was built "largely along utility right-of-way" in cooperation with Lafayette, Moraga, the Central Contra Costa Sanitary District, EBMUD and PG&E.

1972 to 1976: three dates for one opening

Sources give different founding years, and each one refers to a different milestone.

The 50th anniversary counts from the 1976 dedication. Back then the trail had citizen sponsors. In its 2026 anniversary post, the Lafayette Historical Society credits Avon Wilson and Lynn Hiden, known locally as the "Bike Ladies," with the original idea. It also thanks Don Goode, Jerry Kent and other local leaders for their help. Lamorinda Weekly's coverage of the 45th anniversary in 2021 tells the story of the founders and the committee work that led to the July 1976 dedication.

What they produced is a 10-foot-wide paved path, 7.65 miles long. It runs from a staging area at Olympic Boulevard and Pleasant Hill Road, south of Highway 24, to EBMUD's Valle Vista staging area at the edge of Moraga. EBRPD calls it one of the first rail-trails in California and notes that it is wheelchair accessible. The park district manages it as a land-use partnership with EBMUD, the City of Lafayette and the Town of Moraga.

2026: the panels put the stations back on the map

On Saturday, October 10, EBRPD held an open house at the Lafayette Community Center's Jennifer Russell Building, 500 St. Mary's Road, to preview the new interpretive history panels. According to the park district's release, published by Contra Costa News, the panels were developed with the Town of Moraga, the City of Lafayette, the Lafayette and Moraga historical societies, the Moraga Community Foundation and the Community Foundation of Lafayette. Installation along the trail is planned for later this year. The release does not give an exact installation date.

The History Trail website lays out the content as numbered stops from north to south. The first five are in Lafayette, and several match places where the railroad ran or stopped:

1. Reliez Station Road, on the theme of place and time. The Historical Society lists Reliez among Lafayette's former railway stops.
2. Topper Lane, on local commerce over time.
3. Glenside Drive, on the change from rapid transit to strolling, rolling and riding. A 1940 photo of a Sacramento Northern train is identified as taken near today's Glenside Bridge crossing. An older EBRPD interpretive panel says the trail's original dedication marker stood here and that only two worn posts are left.
4. Lafayette Community Center, on changing transportation. The site also points to a separate panel on Indigenous Bay Miwok history in the native-plant garden by the play area.
5. Rheem Boulevard and St. Mary's Road, on prehistoric life.

South of Lafayette, the stops continue at Saint Mary's College, Moraga Commons and Moraga Country Club. They end at Valle Vista, which the site calls a lost community. The Moraga Historical Society says the old Moraga town-site station and the Saint Mary's station are gone, with only traces of track left.

The Lafayette stops are mostly about movement: rail transit at Glenside, changing transportation at the Community Center, and commerce at Topper Lane. The panels describe the corridor as a route, and the next project in town treats it the same way.

2026 to 2027: the next connection is already scheduled

The City of Lafayette's Connecting Lafayette project is meant to create a safer walking and biking link between downtown and the Lafayette-Moraga Trail. The plan includes:

• multi-use paths on School Street and Topper Lane
• a sidewalk on the north side of St. Mary's Road from Topper Lane to Birdhaven Court

After delays for environmental review, construction is scheduled for fall and winter 2026 through spring 2027. The City's spring and summer update reported that PG&E and Comcast had finished moving their utilities. AT&T's work was expected to run through late September or early October, and the page does not yet confirm it is done. Until the City posts an update, the dates are a schedule.

The overlap with the history is close. Topper Lane is a history stop and will also get one of the new paths. School Street will get the other path, and according to the Historical Society, the West Lafayette station once sat near the end of that street. When the work is done, someone walking from downtown to the trail will be using a route close to the one people once took to catch a train.

Getting on the trail in the meantime

EBRPD lists staging areas at Olympic Boulevard, St. Mary's Road, Lucille Lane and Moraga Road. For a car-free trip, County Connection Line 206 serves St. Mary's Road in Lafayette and Line 106 serves Moraga Way and St. Mary's Road in Moraga. Both connect to Lafayette BART, and neither runs on Sundays. The trail continues through downtown Moraga past Moraga Commons toward Valle Vista. EBRPD notes that hiking on the EBMUD lands beyond the trail's south end requires a permit.

The Glenside and Community Center stops are an easy pair to start with. You can look for the two old marker posts near the Glenside Bridge crossing and the Bay Miwok panel by the Community Center play area, and check whether the new panels have gone up yet.

If you'd like a neighbor's view on what the new School Street and Topper Lane connections could mean for your corner of Lafayette, Alexis Thompson is glad to talk it through over coffee. She can also put together a free home valuation that accounts for where your street sits along the trail.