The Best Way to Reach Sudbury's Rail Trail Junction Is by Trail

Two rail trails now cross near Union Avenue in Sudbury. Residents with a free Saturday can head north toward Concord or west toward Hudson. The crossing is called the Diamond Junction, and it has only about nine or ten formal parking spaces. In a Town funding application, the existing lot is described as ten spaces that often fill up.

That small lot shapes how the trails work this fall. The junction is the busiest point in Sudbury's trail system and has the least parking. It makes more sense as a midpoint than a starting line. If you park at one of the town's larger lots and travel a mile or more to reach it, you'll avoid the parking problem.

What changed this summer

Both trails were finished within a few weeks of each other. On Thursday, July 16, the Town held a ribbon cutting for the Mass Central Rail Trail at the Diamond intersection. Sudbury Weekly reported that the project had been in the works for more than a decade. Eversource buried a transmission line in the former MBTA right-of-way through Sudbury and into Hudson. Then the Department of Conservation and Recreation paved the trail and finished the section. Janie Dretler, chair of the Select Board, spoke at the ceremony:

"May this trail remind us that when we invest in connection, we build not only better paths, but stronger communities."

That same month, MassDOT handed maintenance of the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail's 4.4 miles in Sudbury over to the Town. The trail is open to the public. The two routes cross at a right angle near the former train depot. The Bruce Freeman runs north and south, and the Mass Central runs east and west.

Before this summer, Sudbury's trail activity spread along a single north-south line, with parking lots placed along the way. Now everything meets at one point near Union Avenue, and that point was never designed as a main trailhead.

Where the parking actually is

The Friends of the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail list three Sudbury parking areas. The group also mentions ample parking behind Sudbury Town Hall on Concord Road. The Mass Central trail guide lists two more access points near the junction.

The Mass Central guide gives the same advice for the junction. It notes a few spaces nearby, with more parking 1.5 miles north at Town Center. A 1.5-mile walk or ride from the center lots to the Diamond is part of the outing, and the drive to the junction lot can be skipped.

The Town is working on more parking. Members of the Rail Trails Advisory Committee have been talking with owners of land along the Chiswick Park driveway about adding trail parking that would serve both trails. A Town funding application proposes a separate lot with 16 to 20 spaces on Chiswick Park land across from the Diamond. That lot still needs design work, approvals and construction funding. For this fall, the lot near Union Avenue stays small.

What the western leg rewards

From the junction, the Mass Central heads west for about three miles to the point where Sudbury, Marlborough and Hudson meet. The trail guide counts its mileage from that western town line. The Diamond sits at mile 3.0, and the Union Avenue crossing is at mile 3.05. Heading west from the junction, the route passes these stops, in this order:

1. Granite mile marker, mile 1.9. An old stone on the left reads "B21/N83." That meant 21 miles from North Station in Boston and 83 miles from Northampton on the Mass Central Railroad.
2. Dutton Road crossing, mile 1.0. The trail guide calls this the former Wayside Inn train stop and notes that Babe Ruth, who lived nearby, caught the train to Boston here. Longfellow's Wayside Inn is two miles south on Dutton Road.
3. Hop Brook wetlands, mile 0.7.
4. Memorial Forest and Hop Brook Marsh, mile 0.6. Trails lead south into Memorial Forest's pine barrens and north into Hop Brook Marsh, which the Town owns.

The guide also mentions blue herons, turtles, wildflowers and glacial features along the 4.3-mile Sudbury section. The Wayside Inn at 72 Wayside Inn Road offers dining and takeout. Getting there means a four-mile round trip down Dutton Road and back, so plan it as a destination of its own.

Riders who keep going past the town line can follow the Mass Central through Stow and into Hudson, where it connects to the Assabet River Rail Trail.

Coffee, a quarter-mile off the trail

The closest confirmed food stop to the junction is Sudbury Coffee Works at 15 Union Avenue, a café and roaster. Its website lists Monday through Saturday hours and was posting daily specials as recently as October 3, 2026. The Mass Central guide places the Union Avenue coffee shop, food stores and restaurants about a quarter-mile south of the trail. It also cautions that Union Avenue is a busy road.

The Town wants trail users and local businesses better connected. On May 26, Interim Rail Trails Coordinator Marcia Rasmussen and committee chair John Drabinski held a public forum on wayfinding signs, bike racks and business connections along both trails. At the forum, Rasmussen pointed to the Assabet River Rail Trail next door, where Hudson businesses have reported sales gains of "10 to 25 percent when the weather is nice." Those figures come from Hudson. Sudbury's own numbers will depend on whether trail users find their way a quarter-mile down Union Avenue.

The crossings the Town keeps asking about

Both trails cross busy roads, and the Town's late-summer update addressed those crossings directly. Drivers and residents keep reporting people on the Bruce Freeman who don't stop at major intersections or don't activate the crossing signals and flashing beacons. The Rail Trails Advisory Committee worked with the Police Department and a graphic consultant on new yard-style signs along the trail. The signs remind trail users to press the beacon button. Reports of cyclists on the Mass Central crossing local streets without slowing have also increased, and the Town has contacted the Department of Conservation and Recreation about possible next steps.

The traffic signal at Peakham and Hudson Roads has had periodic timing problems. Public Works Director Tina Rivard recommended a corridor study of Hudson Road. Anyone parking at Parkinson Field on Hudson Road should allow a little extra time at that light.

Still unfinished this fall

The junction is crowded partly because the rest of the trail network isn't complete yet. Several pieces are still in progress:

• The Bruce Freeman's formal opening. MassDOT still has accessibility work to do on the access ramp and plaza at the Broadacres Farm lot on Morse Road. Once that work is done later this fall, MassDOT District 3 should be able to schedule a formal opening. As of the Town's September 24 update, a grand opening was "hoped for later this fall 2026."
• A sculpture for Broadacres. The Friends of the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail commissioned a sculpture for the Broadacres plaza. It is in storage in Sudbury until the plaza work is finished.
• The eastern Mass Central link. For now, the Mass Central ends just east of Landham Road. The connection across the Sudbury River to Wayland Center is in design, and construction is expected to start in 2028.
• Bruce Freeman Phase 3. A 1.5-mile extension will run south from the junction to Eaton Road West in Framingham, with federal and state construction funding programmed for federal fiscal years 2029 and 2030. Fuss & O'Neill's design adds a new parking lot and trailhead on Nobscot Road. It also includes an accessible side path to view the cattle pass under the old railbed near the Framingham line. The plans go to the Conservation Commission later this fall.

The Nobscot Road trailhead and the proposed Chiswick Park lot would both ease the squeeze at the Diamond. Neither will be ready this fall. Until then, Davis Field, Town Hall, Broadacres and Parkinson Field have the most parking. From any of them, the junction is a mile or more away, and the Mass Central's western section begins there.

At Denise Mosher, we follow projects like the Chiswick Park lot and Phase 3 because public trail improvements are part of what Sudbury homeowners own along with their homes. If you live near the Bruce Freeman or Mass Central corridor and want to know how the trail's progress might affect your home's value, request a complimentary home valuation.