HIKING NEWS ITEM

Chester Creek Trail Project Receives Funding

THURSDAY, 30 NOVEMBER 2006

The Friends of the Chester Creek Branch, a non profit group, has received a $300,000 worth of grant to finance the construction of a hiking and biking trail out of a rail line.

The grant would be able to cover the initial phase of the 6.7 mile-trail from Chester Creek in Upland to Wawa. The first three miles of the trail will be opened to the public in 2009.

The group was also able to convince the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority to participate in the rail to trail project in the form of leasing the trail. With the help of the Delaware County, a 30-year lease allows the construction of a trail out of the rail line. SEPTA would reclaim the trail if demand of the rail line would build.

Carl Knoch, a trail-development expert in Harrisburg for the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, said that finding the funds for the trail causes delay that is why it takes a decade for a trail to make. The Friends of the Chester Creek Branch was organized about twenty years ago.

Read more about this news story at www.philly.com.