Walk the stretch between Hollywood and Edna avenues NW right now and you will find a weed choked lot, a chainlink fence, and not much else. No landscaping, no lighting, no sign explaining what it is. If you have lived in Albuquerque Country Club or Huning Castle for more than a year, you have probably heard this patch of ground described as the next piece of Albuquerque's Rail Trail, the seven mile loop that is supposed to link the Zoo, the Aquarium, the Rail Yards, and Old Town in one continuous walking and biking path. What you may not have heard is how modest this particular stretch is expected to be. The city's own estimate puts first year foot traffic on this segment at 20 to 50 people a day. That is not a boulevard. That is barely more activity than a residential side street already sees on a Saturday morning.
The gap between the trail's citywide pitch and this segment's actual footprint is worth understanding before construction equipment shows up, because it changes what you should expect this fall and what the current fight over it is really about.
The Piece That's Already Open
The Rail Trail's first completed stretch sits in the Sawmill District, a quarter-mile connector between the Sawmill Market area and Old Town that opened last October. The city put about $4.8 million into that segment, adding solar-powered lighting, bike racks, and benches, and reusing pieces of the old rail line's hardware in the new sidewalks as a nod to the corridor's history. A roundabout near the museums at Mountain and 19th was added to smooth out traffic where the trail crosses the street. If you have walked a dog or taken an evening loop through Sawmill in the last several months, you have already used a piece of this project without necessarily thinking of it as one.
The Piece That's Loud
Downtown, at First Street and Central Avenue, crews have been tearing out a pair of decades old pedestrian underpasses and replacing them with an at grade crossing and ramps, an estimated $10 million piece of the project that comes with its own centerpiece: an interactive light installation nicknamed the Neon Tumbleweed. The city had originally hoped to open one ramp to the public in early 2026, but as of this spring crews were still pouring concrete on that piece, and the full underpass replacement is now targeted for completion by early 2027. This is the segment getting the renderings and the ribbon-cutting energy. It is also the one furthest from anyone's backyard.
The Piece That's Actually Yours
The segment closest to Albuquerque Country Club and Huning Castle is neither of those. It is the third phase, a roughly half-mile connection running from Rio Grande Boulevard to Panmunjon Road, meant to finally give people on foot or on a bike a way to get between Old Town Plaza and the ABQ BioPark without walking down Central Avenue's traffic lanes to do it.
The route is a patchwork by design. Metropolitan Redevelopment Agency Director Terry Brunner has described it as a sidewalk style path in front of the BioPark, a stretch on existing neighborhood streets, and then a dirt, sandy trail near the Rio Grande as it ties into the existing Bosque Trail. The section drawing the most attention, though, is the middle piece: the vacant lot between Hollywood and Edna, once part of a farm, now city owned, slated to become a paved and landscaped stretch of that half mile connection.
Money for it is coming in stages. The city has roughly $400,000 in hand toward a segment expected to run up to $3 million altogether, and plans to break ground this fall on a $1 million phase of it, the piece that runs through that alley.
If you live in this part of the city, here is the practical shape of things as of early September:
- The Sawmill segment has been open and walkable since last October.
- The Central Crossing downtown ramps are under construction now, with full completion expected by early 2027.
- The Old Town-to-BioPark segment, the one behind Hollywood and Edna, is expected to break ground this fall.
- Routing through Old Town Plaza itself is still being worked out. City planners have said the exact path there is not finalized.
Why the Small Number Matters More Than the Big One
The Rail Trail has been sold to the city at large with big numbers. A seven-mile loop. Around $70 million in total project costs across all segments. An economic impact once projected at unlocking $220 million in redevelopment when the state and city first announced a joint funding package back in 2022. Those figures are the ones that show up in press releases and city council votes.
None of them describe what happens on Hollywood or Edna avenue this year. The MRA's own estimate for this specific segment, 20 to 50 users a day in its first year, is a small-street number, not a citywide attraction number. It suggests the agency itself expects this piece to function less like a destination and more like a quiet connector, the kind of path a handful of neighbors use to walk to the BioPark on a weekday morning rather than a route that pulls in visitors from across town.
That distinction is the one worth holding onto if you live nearby. The debate over this segment has not really been about traffic volume. It has been about who gets a say in what happens on public land that sits directly behind private fence lines.
What the Meetings Already Changed
That debate has been public and specific, as KRQE reported. Debra Montoya, a longtime advocate for Old Town Plaza residents who has lived near Hollywood and Edna for 59 years, has organized opposition to the project, raising concerns about privacy and late-night use behind homes that have never had a public path at their back doors. The West Old Town Neighborhood Association has taken the opposite position. Its secretary, Neri Holguin, told NM News the board is
"excited to see it start to move forward."
City Councilor JoaquÃn Baca has been fielding both sides, and residents have asked for a direct meeting with him to work through remaining concerns.
The design has already shifted in response to that input. Brunner has said the path is being moved off Montoya Boulevard and routed closer to the drainage ditch instead, putting more distance between the trail and the nearest homes. The city is also weighing gating sections of the trail to limit overnight use, adding emergency call boxes, and building in regular patrols, changes Brunner has framed as ways to make the path safer rather than concessions to the opposition. A community design meeting held this summer walked residents through the current plans, and city officials have said the routing and access rules are still being finalized rather than locked in.
What This Means for Your Walk This Fall
If you already live in Albuquerque Country Club or Huning Castle, none of this changes your address or your commute. It does change what you will see if you walk toward Old Town or the BioPark over the next few months. Expect to notice ground being cleared on the Hollywood and Edna lot before the weather turns, expect the Sawmill segment to remain your most reliable stretch of finished trail through the winter, and expect the Central Crossing ramps downtown to stay a construction zone for a while longer.
The bigger version of this story, the seven-mile loop whose economic impact was once projected at $220 million, is still years from being a single continuous path. The version that matters to your morning walk is smaller, slower, and still being negotiated block by block. For updates on meeting schedules and design changes as they happen, the city's Metropolitan Redevelopment Agency keeps a running page on the Rail Trail's planning and phasing, which is the most direct way to see what's finalized before the alley behind Hollywood and Edna changes for good.
Following how a neighborhood actually changes, block by block and meeting by meeting, is a habit worth keeping even when there's no transaction attached to it. If you ever want to talk through what any of this means for your own property or your next move in Albuquerque, House of Homes NM is always glad to have that conversation. Let's Talk About Your Next Move.
