The four-mile Brilliant Line starts at Hamilton Avenue in Pittsburgh’s Homewood neighborhood, and that’s where Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald stood on a hot summer morning – wearing sneakers and looking thrilled.
“This trail is going to be … transformational,” he said. “It really will be.”
The long-disused rail line is owned by Allegheny Valley Railroad. For years a coalition of county officials, trail groups, and the founders of Allegheny RiverTrail park, have been trying to convince AVR to transfer the inactive line for the purposes of building a trail. The railroad and local officials came to terms last week, which is why Fitzgerald and Darla Cravotta, the county’s director of community relations and special projects, were crunching along the rail bed, traveling north toward the Allegheny River.
Along the way, Fitzgerald pointed out landmarks, imagining the near future when people will be able to travel along the elevated line by bike or on foot.
“Larimer, East Liberty, Homewood, Lincoln, Lemington, all the way down through Highland Park, down into Aspinwall,” he said. The line will soon be “connecting communities that haven't really been connected, except for Washington Boulevard,” a busy artery that roughly parallels a section of the railroad.
The line crosses the river and runs into Aspinwall, where it borders the 10-acre Allegheny RiverTrail Park and its array of recreational amenities. It also heads south toward Sharpsburg. Another spur, which is also part of the county’s acquisition, runs along Allegheny River Boulevard, on the south bank of the river.
Allegheny Valley Railroad did not return a request for comment. But last week, it agreed to sell the line to Allegheny RiverTrail Park, which simultaneously assigned that sale to the county. Last year, the county announced $4.7 million to cover the cost of the acquisition as part of a series of grants made from its Trail Development Fund.
However, the money to convert the line into a trail — expected to cost between $15 million and $20 million — still must be raised.
The cost and the long-term upkeep needed for a trail are “well worth investment … for the overall greater good,” Fitzgerald said.
Trails are economic development tools, Cravotta said: People and businesses invest in communities because of them.
The “trail system has impacted communities up and down the Allegheny Valley along with the Mon Valley,” she said, citing parks and breweries and coffee shops. “We see that level of investment happening because people see it as an accessible way to get to work or to have fun or just to go for a walk.”
After a couple miles ensconced by climbing grape vines and trees in high-summer leaf, the trail burst onto the Allegheny River and Fitzgerald stopped.
“Just look at that view,” he said. To the west, the broad river ran past a lock and under the Highland Park bridge; to the east, the water reflected the hazy sun as it climbed higher in the sky; in either direction the river turned and disappeared from sight behind low, green hills.
With a little perspective it’s not hard to see possibilities for more future trail connections. Ultimately the Brilliant Line could extend south to Millvale and on to the Three Rivers Heritage Trail, and northeast to connect with the Erie to Pittsburgh Trail.
Before any of that work can begin, the sale of the Brilliant Line must move through a federal regulatory process called “railbanking.” Other railroads can object to the proposed sale, or say they’d like to purchase it. However, interested buyers would have to prove they could make the line commercially viable, reducing the possibility that a company could buy it and then allow it to lie fallow.
The railbanking process could take up to six months. But Bill Strome, board chair of Allegheny RiverTrail Park, said the results will be worth the wait. He credits one of the park’s founders, Susan Crookston, with pushing the idea forward over many years.
“It’s been a long journey, but worthwhile,” Strome said. “To be able to turn that kind of asset into a bike trail is kind of amazing to us. We’re still surprised that this is going to happen.”
