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The Airport Connector is a six-mile link from the Montour Trail Main Line at Enlow to the terminal at Pittsburgh International Airport. It is not a rail grade. It follows Enlow Road, Clinton-Enlow Road, McCaslin Road, Clinton Road, and airport service roads through Findlay Township neighborhoods, with a dedicated paved path for the rest, and for much of the way you share the road. From Enlow it climbs onto the airport plateau, rolls over a crest, and ends in the extended-term parking lot, where a corridor with moving sidewalks leads to the terminal. Beyond Enlow the Main Line continues toward Coraopolis in one direction and Imperial in the other.
Montour Trail: Airport Connector
Your comfort. Prognosticated.
-Cory
In a typical year the Montour Trail: Airport Connector has about 111 to 149 days of excellent weather for popular activities such as hiking, dog walking, e-biking, birding, running, biking, and walking, with April, May, and October the best months.
Hourly comfort scores for the next 15 days of weather, tuned to your activity and your own thresholds.
Plan your visit to this trail. Get the best windows for a comfortable outing.
Enjoy the Montour Trail: Airport Connector!
In half of past years, color along the Montour Trail: Airport Connector peaks October 18 to 28, typically around October 22. The trail has 40% deciduous coverage, with the majority being black cherry, red maple, sugar maple, white ash, and northern red oak.
The Montour Railroad hauled its first coal in June 1879, from the Dickson Mine at Cliff Mine to barges on the Ohio River at Coraopolis. The Imperial Coal Company had organized the railroad in 1877 to reach its mines near Imperial. Passenger and mail trains ran the main line from 1879 until 1927. In 1899 the Pittsburgh Coal Company bought Imperial Coal and its railroad. From 1913 to 1914 it laid a 32-mile Mifflin Extension around Pittsburgh's South Hills to Bethel Park. Branches followed: Library in 1918, Muse in 1921, and Westland in 1928. During World War II the Montour shipped more than 300,000 tons of coal a month. The coal market fell in the 1970s, mines closed, and the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie, sole owner by 1976, cut the line back. The last Montour crew was called on November 1, 1984. Full abandonment took effect in May 1986. Volunteers chartered the Montour Trail Council in November 1989. In 1991 it bought 38 miles of right of way from the P&LE for $220,000. The first 4.4 miles of trail opened at Cecil Park in October 1992. The council has built the trail piece by piece since, earning National Recreation Trail status in 2004. The Airport Connector follows no railroad grade at all; it opened in March 2012 on neighborhood roads and a new path linking the Main Line at Enlow to the Pittsburgh International Airport terminal.
