Four-Mile Rail Line Expected to Open on Montour Trail
Washington PA Observer Reporter
11 December 2010
By Brad Hundt, Staff writer
bhundt@observer-reporter.com
CECIL - People, get ready: There's a train a comin'.
A line from a classic song, of course, but also the gist of a meeting
hosted by the Montour Trail Council at the Cecil Township municipal
building Wednesday night. The council unveiled plans to turn an unused
4-mile branch of the hiking, biking and nature trail into a rail line
for a Houston-based natural gas processor.
The Montour Trail Council has long hoped to develop the Westland branch
of the trail, which swings through Chartiers, Mt. Pleasant and Cecil
townships, but the funding has never materialized. Under an agreement
they've hatched with MarkWest Liberty Midstream and Resources, though,
the land that was formerly used as the Westland spur of the Montour
Railroad will once again be a rail line to be used by MarkWest.
In exchange, MarkWest will develop a trail that will run parallel to
the rail line. They hope to have both the trail and the rail line
completed by the end of 2011.
Both MarkWest and the Montour Trail Council believe the agreement,
which has been in the works a little more than a year, is mutually
beneficial. The council will be able to have the bicycle and pedestrian
sidetrack it has long wanted, while MarkWest will be able to get its
product to the marketplace more efficiently and eliminate more than
half of its truck traffic.
"It's a lot safer by rail," said Pat Carfagna, the environmental,
health and safety director for MarkWest. The company extracts
byproducts from natural gas, such as propane and butane, and then sells
them for industrial uses.
"Obviously, it's a win for (MarkWest)," said Ned Williams, president of
the Montour Trail Council. "But we got something out of it that we feel
like benefits all the people who use the trail and helps our mission."
Williams said he heard relatively little opposition from neighbors of
the trail, though some expressed concern that people using the trail
could wander off into their fields. A chain-link fence about 4 feet
tall will run alongside the trail to separate the two.
A small slice of the Montour Trail that's already being used in Cecil
Township will have track placed on it, but the trail will be replaced
and moved over slightly. The Westland branch will have two trailheads,
with a major one accommodating about 30 cars at Hornhead Road, and a
second one at the intersection of Hornhead and Johnston roads, which
will be able to handle about eight to 10 vehicles.
The Wheeling & Lake Erie Railroad will be doing the shipping for
MarkWest. Initially, about 50 cars will be leaving the facility daily,
but that's likely to increase to about 200 cars per day, broken up into
four round trips.