Brian Lair on WNYC, and we're going to end today's show the preview of a new documentary coming to PBS next week.

Have you heard of the Rails to Trails movement?

Perhaps you know or participate in the

Conservancy with the same name dedicated to turning abandoned railroad tracks into walking and biking

paths for the general public. It comes from a 60-year-old grassroots movement that saw the opportunity

to make nature accessible as railroad lines

were abandoned across the country. That was as commuting became more by car. Next Wednesday,

October 15th, PBS is bringing that movement to television with the premiere of the documentary

from rails to trails. Here's the 32-second trailer narrated by Edward Norton.

It's one of America's most unlikely movements. The fight to convert abandoned railroads to trails.

There's no way of getting something as terrific as a trail without putting some work into it.

A movement that met roadblocks at every turn.

That is prime real estate.

I'm Edward Norton, and this is the story of a national transformation from rails to trails.

So joining me now to discuss not just the documentary, but the movement, because he's sort of the man,

is Peter Harnock, co-founder of the Rails to Trails Conservancy and the Center for City Park Excellence at the Trust for Public Land and executive producer of the documentary from rails to trails. Peter,

thanks for coming on. Congratulations on this. Welcome back to WNYC. Thank you, Brian. Great to be here.

And this is one of those segments where I have to do full disclosure because I am a big rails to trails

fan. My wife and I tend to build our summer vacations around

rail trails for biking. In the last two years, we've gone to places along the Empire State Trail

and the Harlem Valley Rail Trail. Also, the two paths along the Delaware, you know,

on both the New Jersey and Pennsylvania side, what they call the towpath

...