The highlight of the Greenway's route through Pennsylvania is traveling along the Schuylkill Banks into downtown Philadelphia, best known for its rich history, monuments of liberty, and, of course, the Philly cheesesteak.
The Greenway enters Morrisville, Pennsylvania, from Trenton, New Jersey, over the Lower Trenton Bridge before connecting to the southernmost segment of the D&L Trail down to Bristol along the historic Delaware Canal. From Bristol to Philadelphia, much of the route is on road until more of the Greenway is built along the Delaware River. However, Northeast Philadelphia’s Riverfront North section of the Delaware Trail does include a growing number of trail segments, which will be connected in the coming years, linking to the existing Delaware River Trail in Center City. The Greenway connects across Center City Philadelphia along Spring Garden Street, which has been funded for the design and construction of traffic-separated bikeways and sidewalks to link six neighborhoods between the Delaware River Trail and the Schuylkill River Trail near the iconic Philadelphia Museum of Art. The Schuylkill Banks segments of trail have only two more gaps along the Greenway before connecting with Southwest Philadelphia, the 58th Street Greenway, and the growing Cobbs Creek Trail being developed down to the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge’s network of trails at the southwestern edge of the city.
In Delaware County, the Greenway is mostly on road except for a couple segments of the Industrial Heritage Trail in Tinicum along State Road 291 and along the Chester Riverfront Trail, which includes beautiful views of the Delaware River. While segments of trails are developed, the Greenway follows much of Pennsylvania Bike Route E on road through Delaware County before crossing into Claymont, Delaware, by way of Marcus Hook.
In Greater Philadelphia, the Greenway taps into a much larger network of trails, the Circuit Trails, which includes growing connections out from the city into the surrounding suburban counties in both PA and NJ. This includes a second connection into New Jersey via the Ben Franklin Bridge Walkway along the complementary route of the East Coast Greenway that is in various stages of development to link Camden to Trenton, also known as the Delaware River Heritage Trail, which will eventually create a trail loop of over 70 miles between Trenton and Philadelphia along the Delaware River.
Access by transit with bicycles: The Greenway parallels much of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority (SEPTA) Regional Rail in Pennsylvania, as well as into New Jersey and Delaware, making multimodal trips possible with off-peak bike access on the trains (see SEPTA’s bike and ride policy for details). This includes stops along the Trenton Line between Center City and Trenton (see connections to NJ Transit at Trenton Transit Center); and it includes stops in Chester, Claymont, Wilmington and Newark along the Wilmington Newark Line from Center City through Delaware County and Delaware. SEPTA’s bus lines also include bike racks on the front of the buses, with many routes overlapping with the Greenway route. For service to and from Camden County, travelers can bring bicycles on board PATCO trains, with connections to NJ Transit buses and the Riverline. and Additionally, Amtrak has bike-accessible train service to and from William H. Gray III 30th Street Station.
