Rail Banking

Rail corridor protection for transport use if required in the future.

Disused rail corridors used as rail trail have full protection to be reused as transport corridors if required in the future under USA law with Rail banking legislation.

Thanks to Rail Trails Australia for supplied images

The concept of railbanking was established in the United States in the early 1980s when it became part of the National Trails System Act. It is a (legal) strategy to preserve for future rail use abandoned railway lines through interim conversion to a trail (Rails-to-Trails, 2013). It works under the evidence that if a public asset is not used, it is eventually lost. Read more