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Amtrak Survey For Great Allegheny Passage/C&O Canal Bicycle Tourists
By spokesman | August 6, 2009
Since the completion of the Great Allegheny Passage, there has been a significant increase in the number of bicyclists riding between Washington D.C and Pittsburgh. I wanted to share two recent initiatives to improve the route and support for cyclists.
First, the Allegheny Trail Alliance has a link on their website to an Amtrak Survey. The purpose of this survey is to gauge the interest among cyclists for Amtrak services that would make it easier to transport bicycles by train. Potential services would allow cyclists to bring their bikes on a train unboxed. This would make trip logistics much easier. Please take a few moments to complete the Amtrak survey on the ATA website. The survey ends on August 10.
Secondly, I came across an article discussion traveling the complete C&O Canal and Allegheny Passage. Since the Allegheny Passage is a recently completed rail trail, it is in much better shape than the C&O Canal. This is especially true after rain, when the rail trail drains much better than the Canal towpath. The article points out the different conditions along the route and that the National Park Service has plans for improving sections of the Canal.
Both of these initiatives including the potential Amtrak Service and the improvements of the C&O Canal are a direct result of the increased use of the route. Hopefully this trend will continue. Additional initiatives that I would like to see include lengthening the Western Maryland Rail Trail that parallels the C&O Canal for about 20 miles near Hancock Maryland and extending the Pittsburgh end of the trail to connect to other trails heading west.
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Topics: C&O Canal/GAP |
September 30th, 2009 at 12:32 pm
…and extending the Pittsburgh end of the trail to connect to other trails heading west.
I am the Chairmen of the Ohio River Trail Council ORTC), located in Monaca, Pa. I wanted to inform you and your readership that the ORTC is supporting a connection between the Montour Trail and the Pittsburgh Heritage Trail in Pittsburgh, Pa through Beaver County to The Great Ohio Lake to River Greenway near East Liverpool, Ohio. Upon completion, this will form a Mega-Trail from the Great Lakes region to Washington, D.C.
Please support the ORTC. Our website is http://ohiorivertrail.webs.com
and we also have Facebook presence.
Vincent Troia
1100 Pennsylvania Av
Monaca, Pa 15061