Earlier this month, the Biden administration announced $8.2 billion in funding for selected high-speed rail projects across the country. One major rail project that is receiving support will connect Las Vegas and Los Angeles; another will connect several cities in California, including Los Angeles and San Francisco. “America disinvested over the last many decades in our rail systems,” said Pete Buttigieg, secretary of the US Department of Transportation. “We’re reversing that trend.”

One result of this disinvestment and additional challenges in the rail industry is a large number of abandoned railroad lines. But, although many of these railroad lines no longer carry trains, the lines have been put to new transportational use. In this rebroadcasted episode, host Margaret Walls talks with Peter Harnik, cofounder of the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, about grassroots and legislative efforts to repurpose abandoned railroad lines as recreational trails. Harnik discusses why the United States has so many abandoned railroad lines, the process of converting a railroad line into a trail, and the legislation that provides funding for trail projects.

References and recommendations:

“From Rails to Trails: The Making of America’s Active Transportation Network” by Peter Harnik; https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska/9781496222060/

Rails-to-Trails Conservancy; https://www.railstotrails.org/

“Stolen Focus” by Johann Hari; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/634289/stolen-focus-by-johann-hari/