New bill threatens railbanking and railbanked trails

[ERT - Mike Breiding]

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Last year, a bill was introduced by the U.S. House of Representatives that, if passed, would have seriously undermined the entire railbanking process—to the point that it would render the foundational law of the rail-trail movement effectively unusable.

Unfortunately, the bill is back. The so-called “Rails to Trails Landowner Rights Act” was reintroduced as H.R. 4924 on Aug. 8 and includes even more damaging provisions. The bill is an unconstitutional attack on railbanking, violating Fifth Amendment rights, while masquerading as a series of process improvements that are anything but.

This bill effectively destroys the viability of railbanking going forward, resulting in fragmented and lost corridors—and poses a threat to thousands of miles of existing rail-trails. This bill invites a federal agency to meddle in local decisions about corridor width and trail maintenance for existing rail-trails while putting unworkable responsibilities and expensive liabilities on local trail sponsors to prevent future rail-trails from being built. 

If this bill passes, it puts thousands of miles of rail-trail in jeopardy.

Here are highlights of the exceedingly burdensome and unworkable changes to the railbanking legislation included in the bill (full text is available here): 

• Trail sponsors must obtain within 30 days of signaling an intention to railbank a corridor signed written approval of every adjacent landowner as a condition of railbanking. Lack of affirmative consent from even a single landowner would preclude railbanking, leaving these corridors irreparably fragmented. 
• Under this bill, financial liability shifts from the federal government to trail sponsors, most often local governments, to compensate adjacent landowners for unspecified “costs” presumed to be associated with trail use, regardless of whether the adjacent property owner has a property interest justifying compensation.
• Trail sponsors must assume lifetime responsibility for maintaining the corridor until it is reactivated, creating long-term liabilities even for short-term trail sponsors, discouraging anyone from stepping in to save a corridor pending identification of a permanent trail sponsor. 
• The trail sponsor will be required to conduct and pay for unnecessary cost-benefit analysis addressing impacts on security, bio security, food security and other irrelevant topics. This and other new unnecessary administrative requirements could delay the railbanking process and add expense, discouraging trail sponsors like local governments from protecting rail corridors.
• Requires the Surface Transportation Board to consider requests to narrow the width of corridors to match future railroad needs, but such needs aren’t known at the time that a corridor is railbanked.

Further, the new bill requires the Surface Transportation Board to review existing railbanked corridors and recommend to Congress maintenance requirements of trail sponsors. A report to Congress is not concerning, but the focus on previously railbanked corridors could encourage future legislation further burdening trail sponsors for hundreds of existing trails. The previous version of the bill had only targeted future efforts to railbank.

RTC is fighting back and we’ll need widespread support to be successful. Right now, we’re meeting with critical decision makers in Washington and engaging directly with stakeholders we expect will have an influence in these conversations, including local leaders, business owners and railroads. 

On Sept. 25 at 2 p.m. Eastern, we’re holding a webinar to discuss implications of the anti-rail-trail bill and your role in helping to stop its progress. This is where you’ll get the most up-to-date insight into what’s unfolding. Please make time for this important conversation. You can register here.

In the meantime, please let us know if you have close relationships with the lawmakers responsible for this bill. Rep. Sam Graves (MO-06) is the lead sponsor, and is joined by cosponsors Representatives Virginia Foxx (NC-05), Ann Wagner (MO-02), Mark Alford (MO-04), Harriet Hageman (WY-at large) and Bob Onder (MO-03). The bill has been referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources and the Subcommittee on Federal Lands. 

Your voice and your collaboration will be essential in protecting these corridors for their future use—for rail and as trail. Rail-trails are the spines of the country’s active transportation system, which is what’s needed to make it safer and easier for everyone to walk, bike and be active.