H.R. 4924 — Rails to Trails Landowner Rights Act

This section modifies interim use provisions for abandoned railroad rights-of-way (i.e., rails-to-trails conversions) under the National Trails System Act by adding eligibility criteria, procedural safeguards, and review requirements administered by the Surface Transportation Board. (As background, the program enables temporary recreational trail use of rail corridors while preserving potential reactivation as active rail lines.) Specifically, it requires trail sponsors (States, political subdivisions, or qualified private organizations) to (1) notify affected property owners and local governments, obtain signed owner approvals within 30 days, disclose the right-of-way's legal status, compensate owners at a minimum of fair market value (including infrastructure relocation and lost development costs), perpetually maintain the right-of-way or until rail reactivation, provide financial assurances, and create a public online disclosure portal; (2) mandates a 90-day public notice-and-comment period before interim trail use certification, Surface Transportation Board review of easement widths with potential narrowing if unnecessary for future rail service, and a cost-benefit analysis within 10 days after comments evaluating safety, health, security, privacy, biosecurity, food security, economic impacts on owners and communities, and rail reactivation likelihood; (3) assigns specified review costs to trail sponsors; and (4) authorizes the Board to contract independent third parties for required cost-benefit analyses.

This section directs the Surface Transportation Board to (1) periodically review rails-to-trails corridors described in section 8(d) of the National Trails System Act (16 U.S.C. 1247(d))—which authorizes interim public recreational trail use of railroad rights-of-way subject to possible future railroad reactivation—and (2) make recommendations to relevant congressional committees on maintenance requirements of the trail sponsor and consider requests of landowners and trail sponsors to narrow the width of the easement for a corridor.

This section establishes an 11-member advisory committee, appointed by the Secretary of the Interior not later than 60 days after enactment, to recommend maintenance requirements for trail sponsors under the National Trails System Act's interim trail use program for railroad rights-of-way (16 U.S.C. 1247(d)) (i.e., Rails-to-Trails program, which authorizes temporary public recreational trail use of unused rail corridors while preserving the potential for future rail reactivation). (1) The committee consists of six members selected from landowners along existing trails under the program, three members representing rail carriers, and two trail sponsors under the program. (2) Committee members receive no compensation from the Secretary and are ineligible for federal reimbursement of travel expenses. (3) Not later than two years after enactment, the committee submits a report containing its recommendations to the House Committee on Natural Resources.