Jul 28, 2019 4 min read

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Uniontown city officials have been working on the railroad.

City officials have long sought the removal of Southwest Pennsylvania Railroad Company rail line running through the downtown business district and participated in a closed-door meeting to that end with representatives from the company, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission and Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

But the city and railroad company could not come to an agreement about who should remove the rail crossings and how the pavement should be restored, prompting a Sept. 1 deadline for the two parties to report to the PUC whether they have reached an agreement.

If they haven’t, the PUC will schedule the matter for a hearing to determine who is responsible for the restoration work, “including the defined scope of work to be addressed and the future maintenance of such,” according to an email from a PUC civil engineer consultant.

City officials contend the onus should be on Southwest Pennsylvania Railroad Company to remove the line.

The city’s primary concerns are addressing any public safety issues stemming from the rail line and being mindful of city taxpayers, city solicitor Tim Witt said.

Removal will likely cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to Witt.

Eric Hocky, legal counsel for Southwest Pennsylvania Railroad Company, confirmed that talks to strike a potential agreement were ongoing but declined further comment.

Uniontown City Council and the city’s public works director complained at a council meeting earlier this year about the railroad company’s lack of action regarding the abandoned rail line along Beeson Avenue.

After Phil Mahoney, city public works director, reported to council in January that Beeson Avenue was “falling apart” and recalled fruitless meetings with Southwest Pennsylvania Railroad Company and the PUC about the issue, council voted 4-0 to initiate contact with the railroad company.

Richard R. Wilson, an attorney for Southwest Pennsylvania Railroad Company, reported in a September 2017 notice to the Surface Transportation Board that it had formally consummated the abandonment of its rail line within Uniontown’s city limits.

In November, the PUC asked the railroad company to make immediate repairs to the abandoned rail line to alleviate the city’s concerns about the safety of the rail crossing surface along Beeson Avenue.

The bituminous paving along the remaining rails is breaking apart and forming potholes which are creating safety issues for both motorists and pedestrians, the PUC noted, adding the city had asked the PUC to direct Southwest Pennsylvania Railroad Company to make short-term repairs, and to ensure that the former crossings be properly abolished in accordance with a state statute.

The railroad company in April applied to PUC for approval to abolish eight rail at-grade crossings along the industrial track on East Penn, East Peter, East Main, East South, East Church, East Fayette and Dunbar streets as well as Pennsylvania Avenue.

That’s the same path that city officials would like Uniontown’s long awaited portion of the Sheepskin Trail to follow.

K2 Engineering project manager Brian Lake noted at a Uniontown Redevelopment Authority meeting earlier this year that the trail could follow an abandoned rail line behind Grindle Station onto Beeson Avenue, behind Auto Land Hyundai of Uniontown, shoot past the Uniontown Volunteer Firemen’s Social Hall on Dunbar Street and later to the old O.C. Cluss Lumber warehouse on Pennsylvania Avenue near the South Union Township border.

But forging that optimal route would require acquiring the right-of-way from the Southwest Pennsylvania Railroad Company.

“We’ve had a little bit of difficulty dealing with them,” Lake said at the March meeting.

Southwest Pennsylvania Railroad Company acknowledged in its April application to abolish the eight crossings that the right-of-way “could be useful for a trail, and that a trail entity could have an interest in acquiring the railroad right-of-way including assignment of the responsibility for the crossings.”

The trail would connect with the portion of the trail running through South Union Township, which was completed in 2017.

The Sheepskin Trail is a 34-mile rails-to-trails project designed to eventually extend from Dunbar Township to Point Marion at the Pennsylvania/West Virginia state line. The trail will link with the Great Allegheny Passage to the north and the West Virginia Mon River Rail-Trail System to the south.

Witt said he is “optimistic” that an agreement will be reached.

“It’s moving in the right direction,” City Clerk Kim Marshall said.