It’s probably hard for people today to understand the importance of railroads prior to the 1950s.

Until then, the nation’s railway system was not only the dominant means of transporting goods throughout the nation, but was also the dominant means of interstate travel.

The emergence of air travel, along with the creation of the nation’s interstate highway network, greatly reduced passenger train service. While freight service remained, it too was affected by the emerging trucking industry that followed the interstates.

Declining use meant declining profits for the railroads, which own almost all of the 140,000 miles of rail in the U.S. Soon, railroads began abandoning rail lines. According to the website abandonedrails.com. As of May, 1, 755 rail lines have been abandoned nationwide, including 12 rail lines in Mississippi.

Railbanking was established in 1983 as an amendment to the National Trails System Act. It is a popular tool to preserve unused rail corridors for future transportation needs while allowing interim use as recreational trails. Through the amendment, Congress safeguarded a tremendous national asset: America’s rail corridors, ensuring that they remain available for potential rail reactivation while providing communities with trails for walking, biking and being active outside. Today, there are thousands of miles of railbanked corridors across the county and more than 9,000 miles of rail-to-trail projects waiting to be developed.

Approximately 40 of those miles are a part of a rail-to-trail project proposed to run from Ackerman through Starkville to West Point.

But the future of that project, along with the other thousands of miles of potential trails, is in jeopardy because of pending legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives that would require cities or groups who have negotiated with the railroads to convert abandoned rails to trails to secure easements from property owners along the rails within 30 days. If you know anything about the easement process, you know that acquiring hundreds of easements is difficult on any timetable. Acquiring those easements in 30 days is virtually impossible.

House Resolution 4924 was filed by Rep. Sam Graves (R, Missouri) in August. There has been no action taken on the legislation since then, but it is still considered to be active legislation.

It is entirely appropriate that the easements initially granted for private commercial purposes be retained for public use as a quality of life improvement. Property owners lose nothing they hadn’t already surrendered long, long ago.

We urge Rep. Michael Guest and Rep. Trent Kelly to publicly oppose this measure and to commit to defending rail-to-trail projects their constituents have worked so hard to advance. So far, neither has responded to calls from the Dispatch on this subject.

These are the kinds of issues we expect them to work on for their constituents. Truth be told, Guest and Kelly are the only representatives who could be expected to care about a rail-to-trail project running through Starkville.

The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.