Community meeting on the railroad planned for Wednesday

A public meeting has been set for 4 p.m. on Wednesday, March 21, to discuss the acquisition of the former Monon Railroad Right-of-Way (RROW) “Monon South” to continue the use of the 62 mile corridor as a bike, hike transportation route. The meeting, held at City Hall, will be presented by Indiana Trails and is open to the public. 

The railroad runs from the north end in Lawrence County, over 62 miles through Orange, Washington, Clark, and Floyd Counties to Mt. Tabor Road in New Albany.   

The group plans to hold two meetings a month. The first meeting will be held the first week of the month,  the second meeting will be held during the third week in a rotation of different  counties. 

The meeting is being held to explain the process of how the corridor can be used for bike, hike, and  future rail use, and to explain about “trail towns” and to shift three national routes, each for hiking and bicycling, onto this corridor, to get hikers and bicyclists off of busy streets and roads, to make the hikers and cyclists safer than on-road. 

These meetings are being held to field public comments, to ascertain and build support for a trail.