Montour Trail to host national rail-trail ride
The Montour Trail will host the fifth annual Great American Rail-Trail Tour 2026 later this month, highlighting both local and national efforts to expand trail connectivity.
The ride, which will run from Montour Trail mile marker zero in Coraopolis to Columbus, Ohio, Sept. 23 to 24, will begin with an invite-only, kick-off event in downtown Pittsburgh on Sept. 22.
Invitees will enjoy a curated trail experience in Pittsburgh, with opportunities to meet other special guests, trail officials and advocates, and hear stories that bring the Great American Rail‑Trail to life, according to a release.
The Great American Rail-Trail Tour is an effort organized by Washington, D.C.-based Rails to Trails Conservancy, a nonprofit that is working to build the Great American Rail-Trail, a 3,700-mile interconnected network of rail trails spanning the country from D.C. to Washington state, which includes the Montour Trail.
The annual ride highlights a different section of the larger Great American Rail-Trail by inviting a select group of local elected officials, journalists and benefactors to experience the trail firsthand.
Montour Trail Council President Julian Wolfe said the ride is a “great opportunity” to bring together an often-disparate collection of rail trail stakeholders around a common vision of the larger national trail project.
“It’s much different sitting in a conference room in (Washington, D.C.) or a local council chamber and looking at a dotted line on a map. It’s different getting to touch the trail, to ride the trail,” he said.
The gap from downtown Pittsburgh to the start of the Montour Trail in Coraopolis is one of the last major gaps in the larger Great American Rail-Trail that remains in Western Pennsylvania, Wolfe said.
According to the conservancy, if completed, the Great American Rail-Trail is expected to generate approximately $2.8 million in annual tax revenue and over 1.7 million trips.
More information on the trail network can be found online at railstotrails.org/site/greatamericanrailtrail/content/pennsylvania/.