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What's Next?.....
Here's more on the track sale that was found on a site dealing with rails to trails issues:
A decision and notice of interim trail use or abandonment (NITU) served December 12, 1997, established a 180-day period (until June 10, 1998) for the Cambria and Indiana Trail Council (Council) to negotiate an interim trail use/rail banking agreement with the R.J. Corman Railroad Company/Pennsylvania Lines (RJCP) for the 9.6-mile line of railroad known as the Blacklick Secondary, extending from milepost 6.4 at Ebensburg Junction to the end of the track at milepost 16, east of Nanty Glo, in Cambria County, PA. Thereafter, pursuant to the offer of financial assistance provisions of 49 U.S.C. 10904, the Cambria and Indiana Railroad Company (C&I) was authorized to acquire a 4.5-mile portion of the line, between milepost 6.4 and a connection with C&I's track at milepost 10.45189. Otherwise, the trail use condition remains viable for the remainder of the line between milepost 10.45189 and milepost 16. By decisions served July 8, 1998, March 4, 1999, and July 30, 1999, the NITU negotiation period was extended until December 11, 1999.
On December 30, 1999, the Council filed a request to extend the NITU negotiation period until March 11, 2000. The Council states that the final details of the transfer are being worked on and that closing on the acquisition is near. The Council indicates that RJCP concurs with the requested extension of the NITU.
Even if the negotiation period expires, when a carrier consents to continue negotiations and has not consummated abandonment of the line at the end of the previously imposed period, the Board continues to have jurisdiction to grant an extension. Because an extension of the negotiation period will promote the establishment of trail use and rail banking consistent with the National Trails System Act, 16 U.S.C. 1247(d), and the parties agree on the necessity for the extension, the request will be granted. See Policy Statement on Rails to Trails Conversions, Ex Parte No. 274 (Sub-No. 13B) (ICC served Feb. 5, 1990). Accordingly, the NITU negotiation period will be extended until March 11, 2000.
It is ordered:
1. The Council's request to extend the NITU negotiation period is granted.
2. The NITU negotiation period is extended until March 11, 2000.
Note: the street crossings were removed on the old Blacklick Secondary (rails pulled out and new blacktop put down) on South Center, West and Locust Streets in Ebensburg, summer 2000.
What's next? The deal between Corman and the trail council has gone through, according to the trail council's web site and other sources, and C&I has purchased the segment described above (Ebensburg Junction to Beth, just east of Ebensburg where the remaining C&I track joins it.). Corman is now in the process of removing the rails from Ebensburg westward. The trail council's plan is to extend the Ghost Town Trail from its eastern terminus in Nanty Glo along the old Blacklick Secondary to Ebensburg. Rail access has been preserved to the old Mine 33 Cambria Slope site, which is important if mine 33 is somehow reopened or if another industrial enterprise is eventually located on that property.
Plans are also being made by the trail council to obtain the rest of the Blacklick Secondary (which was abandoned recently; the coal cleaning and loading facility at Dias no longer in business) west of Dias in Indiana County and convert it to a western extension of the same rail-trail from Dilltown all the way to Black Lick where it would meet the Hoodlebug Trail, a rail-trail being developed on the old PRR Indiana Branch running from there northward to Indiana. Eventually a rail-trail network linking the two county seats could become a reality. So, not only does the C&I potentially benefit from this action, the development of rails to trails in this region also benefits greatly. As stated before, the Ghost Town Trail has already become quite popular with bicyclists, walkers and outdoor enthusiasts.
