Thriving rail trails energize communities - PA's Great Allegheny Passage has positive economic impact on trail communities - Lebanon Daily Record

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It was the Great Allegheny Passage that changed hearts and minds about having trails pass through communities as link after link of rail trail was completed, Demagall said.

As the trail flourished, concerns about the impact of foot and bike traffic and an influx of people from outside the communities diminished.

Nowhere is that shift more evident than in Meyersdale, a community of just over 2,100 in Somerset County.

Located 118 miles south of Pittsburgh, the town grew up around the railroad.

At one time, two railroads made multiple stops there, taking on passengers and hauling coal and lumber out of the mountains.

But by the time Donald Walukas, 79, moved to Meyersdale 25 years ago, it seemed like the boom years had come and gone. Only one railroad remained and the passenger trains no longer stopped.

A revival came via the rail trail, Walukas said.

It opened a window on the world the community had never seen before, he added.

"You should see the guest book at the station. People from all around the world come here. The trail has been a boom. If anybody knows we live here and they're on the trail, they stop," he said.

A 2012 study pegged the economic impact of the trail at $50 million a year. Not a bad return for a project completed at a cost $80 million to build over 30 years.

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Thriving rail trails energize communities - PA's Great Allegheny Passage has positive economic impact on trail communities - Lebanon Daily Record

MoBikeFed comment: Pennsylvania's Great Allegheny Passage trail is very comparable to Missouri's Katy Trail and Rock Island Trail.

Communities that make an effort to embrace and promote the trail will see real economic and community benefits.