Conversations between various entities centered around tourism in Carbon County is leading to changes in the old Mauch Chunk Train Station in downtown Jim Thorpe.

On Friday, Mauch Chunk Trust Company announced that it will close its Railroad Station branch inside the train station on Dec. 1 after an agreement was reached with the Carbon County Commissioners, which own the station.

On Monday, the commissioners said the move is a joint effort to help make it safer for visitors who come to visit Carbon County.

“There are some plans but I can’t really get into any of that yet,” said Commissioners’ Chairman Mike Sofranko, who noted that changes will be beneficial for everyone to help make the area a hub for tourism.

Carbon County is already the most popular of the four counties that Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau oversees.

Sofranko said that annually, the bureau’s four visitor centers — Carbon, Monroe, Pike and Wayne counties — see approximately 420,000 visitors. Of that number, 400,000 come through the Carbon County visitor center.

“That’s why we have to do something,” Sofranko said.

Entities at the table for the discussions include Carbon County, Jim Thorpe Borough, Mauch Chunk Trust, Reading and Northern Railroad, PMVB and other groups.

Sofranko stressed that this move is not about selling the train station.

“The train station is not being sold,” he said, “nor is any of the ground or anything around the train station. We’re simply getting everyone to work together for the betterment of the borough and the county.”

He also cited that the Panther Valley Blueprint Community has also begun working to bring tourism to Nesquehoning, Lansford and Summit Hill

“If we’re going to keep wanting more visitors to come in and go to Lansford and Summit Hill and using that welcome center, we’ve got to come up with a way to accommodate those visitors and put them there safely, keeping in mind with the traffic flow patterns and everything like that ... Everybody wants to wagon wheel off of Jim Thorpe so we need to begin planning now to accomplish that so everyone can benefit. If we don’t, we’re just asking for problems.”

Commissioners Wayne Nothstein and Rocky Ahner said that some discussions in the works are adding additional bathroom facilities. Right now, in addition to the bathrooms in the station, the county rents portable toilets that are outside the station.

“No definite decisions have been made on what we’re going to do, but there has been a lot of talk because we need restrooms,” Nothstein said, adding that some questions if that would be feasible for the site.

“We got a couple of months to decide what we’re going to do,” Nothstein said.