An article in this week's Main Line Times and a NBC 10 story detail the plight of Merion Station's trackside community garden. Tolerated by Amtrak over the past 20 years, the community garden grew to include extensive sculptures, walking trails, and plantings. Walkthroughs have even been included on the Narberth Garden Tour.
A few years ago, Amtrak management changed their policy without communicating that change to the garden organizers. As part of their routine use of herbicide to keep the tracks clear of vegetation, they sprayed onto the garden, killing many of the plantings. Neighbors responded with hand painted placards visible to train passengers, "Don't Spray Your Poison Here!". Amtrak then agreed it would stop spraying if the neighbors removed the placards.
Two years later, the spraying began again, this time more heavily and with more impact on the garden vegetation. Amtrak followed up neighbor complaints by posting "No Trespassing" signs prohibiting access to the garden.
Amtrak is fully within their legal rights to secure the area and manage it as they see fit. However, this situation highlights the dangers of using handshake agreements versus legally binding easements.
In addition to the Merion Station garden, Lower Merion's Bridlewild Trail has also discovered the pitfalls of handshake agreements as new developments and new owners threaten access to the historic trail system. In Narberth, our major liability is the N.I.C.E Garden which has been developed on the Amtrak-owned berm along the north side of the train tracks.
The garden begins at Essex Ave and runs the length of the berm with a wide variety of plantings, trails, sculptures, seating areas, and other amenities. The trail allows one to follow a gravel-bed nature path from Dudley Ave to N. Wynnewood Ave. There, a short walk across the Thomas Wynne Apartment parking lot leads to another nature trail ending at the Wynnewood train station. One day, possibly, this trail would offer access to the many undeveloped acres of the Maybrook Estate.
Narberth's "Open Space Master Plan" describes the N.I.C.E Garden and its 'at-risk' status:
Of all the private spaces open to public use in Narberth, this trail is most in jeopardy. Because the agreement that allows public use is informal, permission could be revoked at any time by Amtrak (owner of the corridor) or SEPTA (a major user) for any reason. The trail's upkeep is undertaken by a volunteer group whose resources are strained. And the trail does not seem to have built a constituency that would advocate for it should public use be challenged, or if its maintenance became neglected
Given the current climate in Merion Station perhaps now is not the time to approach Amtrak about a more secure arrangement for the N.I.C.E. Garden. Or, maybe the opposite is true.
Either way, this needs to be on Narberth citizen's radar. A long-term plan should be developed to secure the N.I.C.E Trail for future generations.
