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domain. This resulted in many property owners grudgingly accepting what-
ever price the railroad companies offered (Wright, 1997: 725). Eventually
more than 400,000 km of railroads were built in the US for transporting
products and people.
Owing to the increasing popularity of air travel and the advantages of
transporting freight by large trucks on the burgeoning interstate highway
system, by the end of the 1960s rail transportation had declined severely in
North America (Drumm, 1999; Gibson, 1999; Morgan, 1994). The US rail net-
work had decreased from more than 435,000 km at its early 20th-century
zenith to 227,000 km by 1990. During the 1970s, the rail system continued to
lose more than 3200 km of tracks annually. However, the number of kilome-
ters abandoned each year increased to 6400-12,900 in the 1990s as a result of
a 1980 law that severely deregulated railway abandonment (Rails-to-Trails
Conservancy, 1996). Many rail corridors reverted back to previous landowners
or were abandoned to become derelict eyesores on the landscape. Given the US
government's interest in developing trails, many observers saw the value of
converting these environmental blemishes into hiking and biking trails that
would help protect both the culture and nature of places (Bowers, 2000;
Forsberg, 1995; Hedberg, 1989; Hill, 1997; Mills, 1990). Deriving from a con-
cern over what to do with disused railway lines, government policy support
for trail development, and increased demand for leisure experiences, the rails-
to-trails movement began in the 1970s in the US and Canada (Leisure Infor-
mation Network, 2003; Wandres, 2000). Turning old railways into trails was
potentially more efficient than developing trails in other contexts, for 'the
beauty of these . . . trails is that they've already been built' (Mills, 1990: 135).
In 1976, the Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act was
passed by the US federal government to preserve inactive railway rights-of-
way for public use, so that they could be reactivated for train transportation
at a later time if necessary (Morgan, 1994; Wright, 1997). This law qualified
the use of inoperative railways for leisure purposes. In 1983, Congress revised
the 1968 National Trails System Act to authorize the development of trails on
abandoned railroad easements (Cain, 1991; Drumm, 1999; Vance, 1991; Welsh,
1998). The modified law 'encourages state and local agencies and private orga-
nizations to establish appropriate trails' to safeguard, or 'railbank', railroad
corridors for possible future reactivation (Wright, 1997: 724). Many land
owners have fought this legislation, because they feel the end of rail services
terminated the railroad's entitlement to the rights-of-way and they are there-
fore entitled to re-obtain the lands confiscated years earlier (Wright, 1997).
The process of developing a rail-trail is lengthy, cumbersome and expen-
sive (Hedberg, 1989). First a railroad company must request permission from
the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to abandon a railway line. If the
ICC determines that the right-of-way could be usable for another purpose
(e.g. recreation, utilities or a roadway), it may postpone the abandonment for
180 days with a certificate of interim trail use or notice of interim trail use
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