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Trail Planning

WEBINAR – Protecting Railbanking Against Congressional Attack

By: Rails-to-Trails-Conservancy WEBINAR
September 25, 2025

RTC Protecting Railbanking Webinar 2025Download

Railbanking, established in 1983 as an amendment to the National Trails System Act, is the foundational law making possible thousands of miles of rail-trails nationwide. Recently, a bill was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives that would effectively destroy the viability of railbanking going forward, resulting in fragmented and lost corridors—and poses a threat to thousands of miles of existing rail-trails. The so-called “Rails to Trails Landowner Rights Act” was reintroduced as H.R. 4924 on Aug. 8 and includes even more damaging provisions than a previous version of the bill introduced in 2024. This bill is an unconstitutional attack on railbanking, violating Fifth Amendment rights, masquerading as a series of process improvements that are anything but.

RTC’s policy staff hosted this conversation about the implications of the “anti rail-trail bill” and your role in helping to stop its progress.

RTC’s TrailNation Collaborative, Trail Development and Policy teams produce a free webinar series designed to help trail professionals build, grow, manage, maintain, promote or otherwise support trails and trail networks. Sign up here to get webinar alerts. 

Have a comment or question on our webinar series? Contact us below with topic or speaker ideas. We appreciate your feedback! Email us.

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