The WOW folks are going to learn a hard lesson real quickly on railroading 101. Hopefully whoever they hire to conduct this study, can articulate in the report that this railroad corridor is not abandoned and was not when the state purchased it from the railroad. The rail line is still under common carrier status and before the state arbitrarily pulls up the rails (if they ever want to go that route) they will have to apply before the Surface Transportation Board to abandon the line. They state may own the line but they still have to get approval at the federal level if they wish to turn it into a rail trail only. How can they do that when you have two active railroads using the line? It's simple, "you can't". Now had the line been abandoned before they purchased it, then the state could do as they please, they can allow a tourist railroad to operate or not, the line is no longer under common carrier status and therefore does not exist under the STB's governing body.
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