A recent decision by the federal Surface Transportation Board may clear the way for the creation of a 70-mile rail trail through Clarion, Forest, Elk and McKean counties.

The Knox and Kane Railroad's Clarion to Kinzua Branch passes through Cook Forest State Park and the Allegheny National Forest.

The railroad's freight and passenger services closed in 2006 and the tracks haven't been used since 2007.

In a decision last week, the board granted the Knox and Kane Railroad Company an abandonment of 69.9 miles of track from North Clarion Junction to Mt. Jewett while allowing the Kovalchick Family Trust the right to negotiate a railbanking or interim trail use agreement.

A railbanked corridor is not abandoned, so it does not revert to the lands through which the right-of-way runs. Trails for hiking, biking, and other recreation are often created on railbanked rights-of-way.

Also, the railroad reserves the right to the railbanked corridor for future railroad use.

According to the decision, the railroad has until May 23, 2010, to negotiate a trail use agreement. If no agreement is made by that date, Knox and Kane may fully abandon the line.

"We want to have the corridor kept intact instead of being split up," Kovalchick Family Trust Director Joe Kovalchick said.

The Kovalchick family owns the Knox and Kane Railroad and is interested in preserving the corridor whether or not it is ever again used as a railway line.

"It's a pleasant ride," Kovalchick said.

The McKean County Planning Commission is spearheading the four-county effort to win a grant to fund a feasibility study of a trail or trails along the entire length of the corridor.

"What we're really trying to do is get a connecting trail through the Pennsylvania Wilds region," Planning Commission Director Debbie Lunden said.

The study would help the counties determine what kinds of trails and what types of uses would be best.

If the trail program is successful, the counties would take over the corridor in terms of financial and legal responsibilities.

Lunden said McKean County officials have hopes of "keeping the rails from Kane to Kinzua Bridge State Park in case there would be an opportunity for an excursion train or use by the speeder cars in the future."

The other counties are interested in rail trails, she said.

The corridor comes within about two miles of Warren County at its nearest point - south of Brookston in Forest County - and passes through Marienville, Kane and Mt. Jewett.

"We were trying to get at least one borough in each county to be a trail town," Lunden said.

"Hopefully the grant will be awarded and we'll be able to do the study," she said. "All that will be fleshed out in the study."