After months of requests from Pennsburg officials, representatives of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and the Montgomery County Planning Commission toured the site of a proposed trail that is opposed by the borough.

Local, county, and state officials visited the Main St. bridge over the abaondoned Reading Railroad on Monday.

            Council President Diane Stevens described their presence in the municipality as a positive development, but said municipal officials received no indication that they have succeeded in preventing the conversion of a portion of the old Reading Railroad line to a multi-purpose trail.

            "Whether or not we did enough to make them envision what we would like to see happen remains to be seen," Stevens said.

            Stevens, along with several members of Pennsburg council and staff, led a group of visitors – including Nathan Parish, a consultant with the state agency, and Bill  Hartman, a trails and open space planning manager with the Montgomery County Planning Commission – on a walking tour. According to the council president, the goal was to illustrate the impracticality of incorporating a trail into a proposal to reconstruct a bridge on Main Street.

            Stevens claims implementation of the trail, which would follow the path of the former rail line, would adversely impact numerous private citizens and even more business owners between 11th Street and Pottstown Avenue. She said the project would ...