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Surface Transportation: Issues Related to Preserving Inactive Rail Lines as Trails

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Report Type Reports and Testimonies
Report Date Oct. 18, 1999
Report No. RCED-00-4
Subject
Summary:

The National Trails System Act, as amended, provided carriers with an alternative, referred to as "rail banking," to abandoning unused rights-of-way. Rail banking preserves a right-of-way for the possible restoration of rail service in the future and, in the interim, makes the property available for use as a trail. Concerns have been raised by some landowners adjoining these rights-of-way about the lack of opportunity for them to either recover the use of that property or to express their views about how the property is being used. This report describes the implementation process for rail banking, the extent to which rail-banked property has returned to use as rail lines and the potential for future reactivation of rights-of-way for rail service, and whether rail banking facilitates the return of these rights-of-way to rail service.

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