Pennypack Trail

In the sprawling Philadelphia region, there is often not much land available to layout a new hiking and biking trail. But there’s a good news/​bad news way to add a path through a residential agglomeration. The good news way is to convert an unused rail line. The bad news way is to convert an unused rail line … (you see unfortunately that means rail service will never be restored on that line and yet the Philadelphia metropolitan area needs all the rapid public transit that can exist.) Anyway about 30 years ago the Fox Chase to Newtown, Bucks County railroad line was discontinued. This was a train line that went through beautiful countryside including running along the Pennypack Creek as it flows through Montgomery County. Over the last few years Montgomery County Bureau of Parks has been converting this old railroad into the Pennypack Trail… a major extension of which just opened only a couple of months ago. It’s a very scenic path that is excellent for both hiking and biking and also goes right by Lorimer Park with all its trails and facilities. The Pennypack Trail has a super bicycle sharing system managed by Zagster for use on this path. But if you’re planning to hike along it, unfortunately you just have to double back as there’s no public transit to whisk you back to your starting point. Now if only there was a railroad to do that!