Rails With Trails – A Twist On Rails To Trails Conversions

We’ve previously reported on the “Rails to Trails” process by which old railroad corridors are being abandoned and converted into other uses, such as hiking, biking or other trail purposes, and the potential ability of adjacent property owners to seek just compensation in certain circumstances. But what happens when the railroad is owned in fee by the railroad, or alternatively, where the railroad continues to operate but adds a pathway within the railroad corridor? Is compensation owed in these circumstances? 

The Nossaman team recently litigated these issues in a case where numerous property owners adjacent to a railroad corridor claimed that they owned the underlying fee interest in the corridor, and the transit agency only had an easement which precluded it from constructing a multi-use pedestrian and bicycle pathway. The plaintiffs sought to quiet title in the underlying fee interest in the railroad corridor, and also sought compensation by claiming the pathway construction