Luzerne County Redevelopment Authority advances rail line purchase offer plan

A plan to consider purchase offers for Luzerne County’s rail line incrementally advanced Tuesday.

The board of the Luzerne County Redevelopment Authority, which owns the line, voted Tuesday to authorize a team of authority staff and two board members to prepare for the eventual public solicitation seeking offers.

Specifically, Tuesday’s authorization was for this team to “take all steps necessary to secure information relative to valuation of rail line assets and obligations in order to prepare requests for proposals.”

All three authority board members in attendance approved the authorization: Chairman Scott Linde, Stephen E. Phillips and Erik Laskosky. Board members John Pekarovsky and Vincent Fayock were absent.

Linde said a valuation will define the assets for sale.

Reading & Northern Railroad Chairman and CEO Andy M. Muller Jr. recently made an unsolicited offer to pay $10 million to buy the line, saying he will increase freight service and add passenger train excursions from Wilkes-Barre to Pittston. These are not commuter routes, but they would connect Wilkes-Barre to popular tourism train rides, such as existing excursions Reading & Northern operates from Pittston to historic Jim Thorpe.

Although initially resistant to non-public rail ownership, authority representatives decided offers should be considered, but only in a public process open to all interested entities.

The approximately 55-mile county rail line passes through the Pittston, Wilkes-Barre and Hanover Township areas.

Following Tuesday’s meeting, the board met in closed-door executive session to discuss litigation.

A county council-authorized suit filed against the authority in July is now in the discovery phase.

The suit seeks court appointment of an oversight receiver or a declaration that $3.28 million the county loaned to the authority is immediately due. The county suit is also against the nonprofit Rail Corp., which maintains a lease agreement with the rail operator, R.J. Corman Railroad Group.

The authority and Rail Corp. have argued there is no breach of contract to litigate because the authority has until October 2026 to repay the county.

Letters show the county wants the authority to turn over the railroad so it can be sold to recoup the $3.28 million. While the delinquent loan was stated as a reason, it appears to be part of a broader push to put the track into private ownership, with the hope that it would add passenger rail excursions while retaining and building commercial use.