| Rail-Trail Funding and the Gas
Law
SEC. 1617. INDEMNIFICATION ON CERTAIN RAILBANKED PROJECTS. Under a variety of programs (e.g., the Recreational Trails Program, the Transportation Enhancements Program, the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program, Surface Transportation Program), the Department of Transportation provides funds to States to acquire, develop, construct, and maintain trails. States may use these funds to make grants to local governments and private organizations ("project sponsors") for trail projects. Such projects include trails established pursuant to the National Trails System Act Amendments of 1983, 16 U.S.C. 1247(d) ("Rails to Trails Act"), located on a railroad right-of-way. Where the railroad or project sponsor's ownership interest in the right-of-way would not allow for railbanking and interim trail use under applicable State law but for the operation of the Rails-to-Trails Act, the United States has been held liable by the Federal courts under the Fifth Amendment to pay just compensation. The result, in these instances, is that the United States can be said to pay twice for the same trail corridor -- first through funds provided by DOT, and a second time as the result of a just compensation award to property owners who abut the trail corridor and who are found by the court to hold the underlying fee interest. This section adds an indemnification requirement for States involved in railbanking. If a Federal court determines that property owners are entitled to just compensation -- in a corridor where Federal-aid highway funds have been used after the date of enactment to acquire right-of-way interests or develop a trail that is located on a railroad right-of-way under the Rails to Trails Act -- the State must pay the United States the lesser amount of the judgment awarded (including attorneys' fees) or the Federal-aid highway program money received in connection with that railroad right-of-way. Source: National Association of Reversionary Property Owners (NARPO) |