Some other commentary on this subject:

http://myprogressiverailroading.com/rai ... 95/t/21800

Panem et Circenses remains as effective a tool for controlling people now, as it was when Juvenal is said to have coined the saying centuries ago.

I like to think this makes us quite special--and it also makes us perpetual underdogs.

Wish we weren't quite so special and weren't quite so underdoggy.

What perhaps is so mind boggling is tourist lines here in the UK are used to access footpaths. Indeed, Snowdon National Park were (somewhat) keen on the Welsh Highland Railway being reinstated as it would cut down on car traffic to the small village of Bethgellert, where numerous footpaths start from and finish to explore the wider national park.

Same again with the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, which runs through the North Yorkshire Moors National Park.

There's some footpaths that can easily be accessed by the Ravenglass and Eskdale railway.

There was also the 15" tourist driven Bure Valley Railway, where reinstatement was actively encouraged by a previously footpaths happy council because the railway would help put in the footpath they wanted.

Not that it's all idealism and rainbows, another rail-line in Derbyshire was recently slapped down when a heritage group and a railways advocacy group wanted to reopen yet another line, they instead want a footpath.

There's obviously a militant streak in the Tracks to Trails group and the lure of federal money is always going to be a siren song to any government group.

But it should be possible to do both if the land's available. Creating nature trails where the railroads act as a means to get to them and enhance the feeling of travel and exploration.

This is likely to turn the tide is the US's HeritageRail Alliance gets under way and fully matures. That organisation's only really been about for the past 5 years or so, but seems to have the same aims as goals as the UK's far more powerful Heritage Railways Association. It will need to broaden its focus a little to point out it's part of a wider heritage movement, its collective economic impact and how it can benefit other museums and other heritage activities and groups as well.

A more recent thread that could tie into this one.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=41818