"'Rails-To-Trails' Policy Faces Setback After Supreme Court Ruling"

"WASHINGTON -- In a setback to the U.S. government's long-running policy of converting abandoned railroads into public trails, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ruled for a Wyoming property owner who objected to a plan to extend a pathway across his land."

"In a decision that could affect similar cases across the United States, the court ruled on an 8-1 vote that the right-of-way across Marvin Brandt's land that was established by a railroad was extinguished when the railroad was later abandoned.

As a result, the U.S. Forest Service cannot build a public trail along a half-mile stretch of the railroad that crosses Brandt's land in Fox Park. The land is in the Medicine Bow National Forest, about 40 miles (64 kms) west of Laramie, Wyoming."

Lawrence Hurley reports for Reuters March 10, 2014.

SEE ALSO:

"Supreme Court Rules Against Forest Service in 'Blow To Rail-Trail Efforts'" (Greenwire)