By Mary Ann Thomas, VALLEY NEWS DISPATCH, link to original post

Linking what looks like unrelated squiggles on a map of Pennsylvania is a proposed 270-mile bike and walking trail from Pittsburgh to Erie.

The Erie-Pittsburgh Trail Alliance, a conglomeration of trail associations and other rail-to-trail advocates, is working on the details of connecting a series of community trails, many of which traverse the defunct routes of the Pennsylvania Railroad, into a seamless path stretching from Allegheny to Erie counties.

More than 50 trail enthusiasts and government officials met Nov. 16th at the Freeport Fire Department on Market Street in Freeport.

The groups touts the health, recreational and economic benefits of the trail project. “It’s not just a trail,” said Ron Steffey, director of the Allegheny Valley Land Trust, which oversees the Armstrong Trail. “It’s a place for family outings, couples and a child to learn how to ride a bike.”

Years and millions of dollars in the making, three of the “struggling” trail projects are sewing up 27 miles in 17 municipalities along the Allegheny River corridor from Pittsburgh to Freeport, according to Jim Holder, volunteer chairman for the Alliance. “It’s a big challenge,” he said. “You get into more population and industrial areas where there are more challenges.”

The Alliance will release results of a study about efforts to thread the trail along riverfronts and through business and residential districts in towns such as Aspinwall, according to Tom Baxter, executive director of Friends of the Riverfront in Pittsburgh.

“Ideally, we would like the trail on the riverfront, but we also look at what is practical,” he said. Active rail lines and private property are the biggest hurdles.

Early in 2010, the Alliance will host a public meeting with the study results that will propose both a preferred route and a practical route.

According to Baxter, the Alliance has met with representatives from the 17 river communities in Allegheny and Armstrong counties.

Also vital is the bike and pedestrian path to be built on the Freeport Bridge, according to John Haven, a South Buffalo supervisor. “You’re looking at three years for the Freeport Bridge project,” Haven said, “and by the time it’s done, it will be ready to connect to other trails.”

In addition to the Pittsburgh trail going to Erie, he wants a link to the Butler-Freeport trail.

The Alliance is looking to bring the bike and walking paths into the towns. For example, planners are exploring River Road in Natrona as a “share the road” used by cyclists and motor vehicles, according to Darla Cravoha, special program coordinator for Allegheny County.

Irene Szabo wrote this for the Finger Lakes Trail e-group:

Readers of the FLT News who have total recall might remember that the railroad that still cuts through Map M4 and our “Cobb property” also had a branch to Buffalo which splits off the active leg at Ashford Junction, where NY 242 and NY 240 meet.? Earlier plans to abandon the branch to Buffalo were put aside while icky radioactive leftovers were removed by rail from the closed West Valley reactor site a few years back, but now Buffalo and Pittsburgh RR, one of the Genesee & Wyoming family of railroads, wants to abandon this line officially and take up the rails.

Many rail-to-trail advocates are supporting this abandonment, since they see it as a golden opportunity for a 28-mile trail route from Orchard Park, a suburb south of Buffalo, south nearly to Ellicottville, mostly through very rural countryside and forested hillsides. There was a time when part of the Conservation Trail utilized a bit of this inactive railbed through a delightful swamp where osprey hunted from old power poles along the railbed, but permissions that enabled us to reach that railbed were lost, alas.?

The B&P RR has filed for abandonment, trail advocacy groups are thrilled to step up to tend and administer this potential trail, but there is some noise from adjacent landowners who wish the public wouldn’t be walking or bicycling by their back yards.? As a veteran of the early days of the Genesee Valley Greenway, when the power company’s corridor along an old railbed/canal towpath was turning into a long trail, I can recall many of the same unfounded fears being expressed by trail neighbors.? “City people” were going to come to their neighborhoods and commit crimes …. while on foot?? From bicycles?? Come on…..

Obviously the nervous fears were not well thought out, and experience typically bears out the trail advocates’ positions:

As it turns out, neighbors end up using and enjoying the trail.
Crimes are non-existent.
Trash is minimal, and, in fact, troublesome dumping on the old unused corridor goes away now that users are out there with their eyes open.

And while some of the neighbors for this new potential trail are concerned about snowmobile noise, the permitted uses have yet to be determined, so their energies should be directed toward that ancillary concern.

A petition is being circulated among trail groups, one that is intended to be used to convince local municipalities’ officials to continue to SUPPORT the trail idea, rather than listen to a few nay-sayers. Click here for a copy.

The Seattle Post Intelligencer had an article with  the Eastside latest rail/trail news.  Each time we hear about rails/trails news, we hear it’s the final plan.  So this may or not be it!   Until some money changes hands, don’t make any plans to take the train to work or ride your bike up to the Burke-Gilman trail.

Here are the highlights from the newspaper article written by King County Council members Bob Ferguson and Larry Philips:

•  The port will purchase the entire Snohomish-to-Renton rail corridor from BNSF for approximately $103 million.
• The port and the county will begin a vigorous public outreach process to hear public priorities for the corridor and the future of the rail bed, under the rubric established by the County Council that prioritizes dual use for recreation and mass transit.
• The county will have an option through July 1 to purchase sections of the corridor between Woodinville and Redmond and south of the Wilburton Trestle in Bellevue for $42.5 million.
• Should the port later decide to divest itself of any part of the corridor, the county would have 120 days in which to purchase the property. After that, the port would offer the property for sale for another 120 days to any other public agency that provides mass transit, rail services or trails.

According to our county councilmen, there will be opportunities for Eastsiders to voice their opinion about the plans for the rails and trails.  As soon as I hear anything more about either the plans and/or meetings, I will pass the word along.  Of course, if anyone has opinions here, fire away!