The South Shore Trail is a long, planned shared-use rail trail that will run from Annapolis to Odenton in Maryland, United States. Two segments, totaling have been built. The Trail primarily utilizes the abandoned road bed of the Annapolis and Elk Ridge Railroad. The trail will connect with the Colonial Annapolis Maritime Trail on the east and the Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Trail, via the Odenton Bike Path, on the west. When complete, it will be a component of the American Discovery Trail, the East Coast Greenway and the September 11th National Memorial Trail. The trail name is a reference to the railroad it replaces which during its last 10 years in operation was known as the South Shore Division because it ran along the south shore of the Severn River. History The Annapolis and Elk Ridge Railroad was chartered in 1837 and began operating in 1840. Competition and fees forced it into bankruptcy and reorganization in the 1880s and it changed its name to the Annapolis, Washington & Baltimore Railroad. In 1902 it was purchased by the Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Electric Railway (WB&A) and transformed into an electric interurban line. In 1921, when the WB&A purchased the B&A, the line became known as the South Shore Division of the WB&A and the B&A as the North Shore Division based on their relationship to the Severn River. In 1935, the entire WB&A ceased operations and the section between Odenton and Annapolis was sold for scrap. In the late 1980s, Maryland turned the southern portion of the B&A railroad into a rail trail and by 1986, the success from that led Anne Arundel County to declare intentions to do the same for the South Shore line. On November 9, 1990 county leaders broke ground on a half-mile section of the trail between Waterbury Road and I-97 in Millersville, but work did not commence. For nearly 30 years, the trail languished, delayed by environmental concerns, local opposition and budget constraints. First the trail was delayed by the reluctance of owners to sell the rail bed, which by then had passed back into the hands of residents, to the county for a trail. Then money became an issue when, in 1992 limited by a cap on tax revenue, the County Council voted to pull $270,000 from the trail project to repair the Lake Waterford dam in Pasadena. Though they planned to restore