The Atlanta Traveler

I have a triathlon athlete friend visiting from California. He wanted to know where to go biking and the first thing that came to mind was Silver Comet Trail. SCT is a 94-mile bike trail that runs from Georgia to Alabama. Currently, only about 60 miles are paved but construction is underway to finish the remaining trail which would join Smyrna, Georgia to Anniston, Alabama.

Silver Comet was originally a railroad but was abandoned by CSX Transportation in 1989. The Georgia DOT then bought the abandoned rail line. After much planning, Silver Comet finally opened to the public in November of 1998.

Here’s a brief history:

In 1947, the Silver Comet Train was introduced by the Seaboard Air Line Railroad during the height of the Rail Era. Due to the rising popularity of airline travel, the Silver Comet was downgraded in the mid 1950s, losing its sleeper-lounger cars. In 1969, the Silver Comet was downgraded again and finally discontinued by the end of the year. In 1986, the Seaboard Air Line Railroad’s successor, the Seaboard System Railroad, merged with the Louisville & Nashville Railroad (L&N) and became part of CSX Transportation.

In 1989, the CSX Railroad informed the state of Georgia it was abandoning 36 miles of railroad from Cobb County through Paulding and Polk counties, the former Silver Comet Train’s route through Georgia. By 1990, the idea of turning the abandoned rail into a multi-use trail formed by multiple groups, including the Georgia Rails-Into-Trails group.

In 1992, the Georgia Department of Transportation bought the abandoned CSX rail line for future use as a high-speed transit route, but later that year Ron Griffith, Director of Cobb County Parks, requested a lease agreement between Cobb County and the Georgia DOT to use the rail line as a multi-use trail. The Cobb County Board of Commissioners approved the multi-use trail plan in November. In January of 1995, the East-West Connector agreement was signed with an included requirement of Cobb County to develop a plan for converting the rail into a trail.

The Cobb County Board of Commissioners allowed Cobb Land Trust a budget of $30,000 for the county to acquire a consultant to help develop a design for the multi-use trail in 1996 and a year later the Board allocated $900,000 for the development of a 2-mile section of the rail-trail next to Heritage Park to test the multi-use trail idea. In July of 1998, construction of the Silver Comet Trail began.

By November of the same year, the first section of the Silver Comet Trail opened from Nickajack Creek to Hicks Road. In 2003, the trail was recognized by the National Park Service as a national recreational trail.

Silver Comet is a well-maintained public trail used mainly for biking and skating. However, it is also popular among walkers, joggers, hikers, and is wheel-chair accessible. There is even a bicycle/blade shop that offers sales, rentals, repairs, lessons, and snacks for purchase. This is a must see and do in Georgia so don’t miss it!

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