Transportation Law Commons^™

Locomotives V. Local Motives: The Coming Conflict, Statutory Void, And Legal Uncertainties Riding With Reactivated Rails-To-Trails White River Environmental Law Writing Competition Winner, Matthew J. Mcgowan

Student Scholarship

Study after study projects that the United States economy will come to rely more and more on freight rail in the twenty-first century. Few would have predicted the industry's reemergence 30 years ago when Congress, alarmed at the mass exodus from railroad and the resulting anemic rail infrastructure due to abandonment, began passing laws that culminated in 1983 with a rail-banking amendment to the National Trail System Act of 1976. The new statute streamlined the transfer of these rail corridors to private groups for safekeeping in the event railroads once again needed to reactivate the corridors. Since then, parks departments, …