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[Todd Hollritt <thollritt_@_yahoo.com>]

  Anyone know if any of the former Lackawanna Railroad trackage is included in this plan? It mentions the towns of Kingston and Forty Fort. Maybe a portion of the former Bloomsburg Branch is being considered? 

Todd ~
Trail loops seen as links to Wilkes-Barre’s features
Trail master plan shows entire city connected to schools, parks and other local attractions.
By Rory Sweeney rsweeney_@_timesleader.com
Staff Writer 


WILKES-BARRE – Soon enough, the city will have not only connections to regional trails that cross the area, but also a series of trail loops to connect the city from one end to the other.
Engineers from Rettew displayed on Thursday a finalized proposal for the city’s trail master plan, which would create roughly a 12-mile loop around the entire city with two- to three-mile loops within it, all of which would connect to schools, parks and other local attractions.
The Pennsylvania Environmental Council, which funded the study, hopes to have the master plan completed by March. The draft should be finished by January, after which will be a period for public comment. 
A copy of the map should be available for download in early January on the Web site of the Pennsylvania Environmental Council, which organized funding for the project.
The plan creates six interconnecting trails that circumnavigate the city’s neighborhoods, from Parsons and Miners Mills to the East End down Sherman Street. The trails would also connect with the Luzerne County National Trail, the Susquehanna Warrior Trail, the Delaware and Lehigh Trail and the Back Mountain Trail.
The trails would generally follow abandoned rail lines and neighborhood streets, though they parallel major thoroughfares at times.
“The abandoned railroad grades are like nothing we’ve ever seen before,” said George White, who’s subcontracting on the project.
Because of that, most of the trails funnel toward the old train station on Wilkes-Barre Boulevard at Market Street. “Hopefully, it can be the gateway to the city again through the trail system,” White said. “The train station is the center of the whole thing.”
The station is being considered for renovation as a visitors’ center to the city.
The project is separate but connected to a similar project for trails through West Side communities, including Kingston and Forty Fort.
The next step is to find funding for design and engineering of the actual trail, said Julie McMonagle, the vice president of PEC’s northeast office. When exactly the trails will be completed is hard to tell, she said, but likely years away.




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