About
A volunteer-powered force for public trails
The Regional Trail Corporation has spent more than three decades turning abandoned railroad lines into the trails southwestern Pennsylvania rides, walks, and runs on today.
Our mission
Converting railroad corridors into public greenways
The Regional Trail Corporation (RTC) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 1991 and based in West Newton, Pennsylvania. Its mission is to acquire abandoned railroad corridors across southwestern Pennsylvania and develop them into public, non-motorized recreational trails, and then to maintain those trails for the long term.
RTC is a volunteer-powered organization. It owns and manages trail corridors directly, holds the easements that keep them public, and coordinates 9 local chapters that carry out maintenance, fundraising, and community events. Together they care for more than 85 miles of rail-trail across 3 counties: Allegheny County, Fayette County, and Westmoreland County in Southwestern Pennsylvania.
A large share of that mileage belongs to the Great Allegheny Passage, the 150-mile rail-trail between Cumberland, Maryland and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. RTC chapters maintain much of the Passage’s Pennsylvania mileage, from the Mon Valley near Pittsburgh out to Connellsville.
- 85+
- miles of trail
- 10,000+
- volunteer hours a year
- 9
- local chapters
- 35
- years of stewardship
across four trail systems
one of PA's largest volunteer-powered trail programs
rooted in their own communities
building trails since 1991
Why “TrailKeepers”
The people are the program
RTC’s real infrastructure isn’t asphalt or limestone; it’s people. The organization runs almost entirely on volunteer labor, and the trails exist because thousands of hours are given to them every year.
TrailKeepers is the name for that community: the volunteers who maintain the corridors, the members who fund supplies and equipment, and the supporters who simply show up, ride, and spread the word. It’s how you join, and it’s how the trails stay open.
What we believe
The principles behind the work
Trails should be free and public
Every mile RTC maintains is open to the public at no charge. We protect the corridors and easements that keep them that way for the next generation.
Local people care for local trails
Nine community chapters do the on-the-ground work, neighbors who use their trail every week, alongside volunteers from across the region who pitch in. Wherever you live, there's a place for you.
Volunteers can build big things
A volunteer-powered movement helped complete a 150-mile national-class trail. We believe ordinary people, organized well, are the most durable infrastructure a trail has.
Want the mechanics of how chapters, maintenance, and funding fit together? See how we work.
Leadership
RTC officers & directors
The Regional Trail Corporation is governed by a volunteer board of officers and directors drawn from the three counties the trails cross.
President
Mark Place
Vice President, Allegheny
Joanne Foerster
Vice President, Westmoreland
Jessie Albright
Vice President, Fayette
John Irwin
Secretary
Christina Edwards-McCune
Treasurer
Timothy Inglis
Allegheny County
Appointed
- Mark Fallon
- Joanne Foerster
- Conner Steel Plunkett
At-Large
- Timothy Inglis
- Mark Place
- Raymond Lombardi
Fayette County
Appointed
- Frank Mutnansky
- John Irwin
- David Omatick
At-Large
- Scott Dunn
- Eric Snyder
- Ethan Williams
Westmoreland County
Appointed
- Christina Edwards-McCune
- Gordon Shaler
- Kelly McLaughlin
At-Large
- Stan Rudge
- Jessie Albright
- Kristi Mitchell
Operations Director
Samantha Frund
Help keep the trails there for you.
Whether you pitch in on a volunteer day or chip in a few dollars, every TrailKeeper makes the next mile possible.