Standing at Reading Blue Mountain & Northern Railroad Co.’s Pittston station in August, company Chairman/CEO Andy M. Muller Jr., right, and Matt Fisher, senior vice president and general manager of the company’s passenger department, discussed the company’s interest in purchasing Luzerne County’s rail line.
Times Leader File Photo
Reading & Northern Railroad — the company interested in bringing passenger train excursion service to Wilkes-Barre — is offering to pay $10 million to purchase Luzerne County’s rail line, according to a letter.
Company Chairman and CEO Andy M. Muller Jr. made the offer in a letter sent by regular mail and email Monday to Scott Linde, board chairman of the county Redevelopment Authority, which owns the line.
Separate from a purchase, Muller has publicly discussed his intent to invest millions of dollars in private funds to improve the line, including at least $2 million to upgrade the 8-mile line between Pittston and Wilkes-Barre to accommodate excursions from Wilkes-Barre to Jim Thorpe.
Muller’s communication said he read media coverage that the authority is considering publicly seeking proposals from entities interested in purchasing or long-term leasing of its rail assets.
While that request-for-proposals is still under development, Muller’s letter said Reading & Northern is “pleased to make this offer to purchase ALL of the Redevelopment Authority’s property interests for TEN MILLION DOLLARS.”
Reading & Northern is prepared to immediately enter into sale negotiations and is willing to close prior to the expiration of the existing rail operator lease, the letter said. R.J. Corman Railroad Group recently received a contract extension to continue serving as county rail line operator through October 2026.
“We stand ready and willing to meet with the RDA and other entities in Luzerne County in order to bring tourism to Wilkes-Barre and improved local service to this region of Luzerne County.”
Muller’s letter said his company is “prepared to bring its award-winning passenger excursion service to Wilkes-Barre, but only if we are able to reach an agreement to purchase the line.”
“As we have previously explained to you and the RDA, and most recently to your operator R.J. Corman, we cannot operate passenger service safely over the tracks in their current condition. We estimate it will cost at least $2 million just to bring the passenger tracks needed to connect to our Pittston Yard up to proper safety standards. And we cannot do that work while someone else owns the underlying property,” his letter said.
In addition to constructing a passenger platform station at property it already purchased near the county-owned former historic train station in Wilkes-Barre, Reading & Northern would build a station in Pittston’s downtown as part of the proposal to acquire the line, Muller has said.
His offer letter committed to providing “exceptional freight service” using Reading & Northern’s large Pittston freight yard as the operations base, which has crews and locomotives available around the clock.
“R&N intends to restore traffic levels to where they were three years ago and to aggressively market the line for growth,” it said.
It also intends to use the Ashley Rail Yards property to attract manufacturers that need rail and that will hire local county residents, the letter said. This property is approximately 80 acres and located behind the tract where the Huber Breaker once stood in Ashley.
In closing, Muller said his company commits to “NEVER abandoning service to any location on the active operating lines” and to “NEVER selling any of the active operating lines.”
These points are aimed at addressing past resistance from authority board members to put the line back in private hands.
Linde said last week the “general agreement” among board members involved in overseeing the line is that a fair and open solicitation is necessary to explore all options. As many as eight other rail operators have expressed interest in buying or leasing some or all of the line, he said.
Linde said Tuesday he sincerely appreciates Muller’s offer.
“We need to complete request-for-proposals process as soon as possible so his offer can be formalized as part of a process that is open to everyone,” Linde said.
The county wanted the authority to turn over the railroad so it could be sold to recoup $3.28 million still owed from a 2001 loan prior commissioners had provided to the authority so it would not default on its mortgage and risk losing infrastructure that services businesses, letters show.
While the delinquent loan was stated as a reason, it appears to be part of a broader county push to put the track into private ownership, with the hope that it would add passenger rail service while retaining and building commercial use.
An ownership transfer to the county did not materialize, prompting a county council-authorized suit in July against the redevelopment authority, which owns the line, and the nonprofit Rail Corp., which maintains a lease agreement with the rail operator.
The county suit seeks the appointment of a receiver to preside over the mortgaged property and real estate, an order staying any sale or lease of rail property without the county’s prior written consent and an award of attorney’s fees and court costs, it said. Another option would be a declaration that the more than $3 million is immediately due and/or that the loan agreement is terminated, it said.
Both the authority and Rail Corp., which is governed by a seven-member board that includes all five authority board members, have filed litigation responses arguing there is no loan default to act upon because the county’s repayment extension document requires the authority to repay the county at zero interest by October 2026.
Unless an amicable resolution is reached, both sides must wait until August 2026 for the trial.
The approximately 55-mile county rail line passes through the Pittston, Wilkes-Barre and Hanover Township areas.
Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes.
