Railroad stakes claim to its right of way

Safety, planning cited; many in the buffer zone are skeptical

CLAYTON -- Clayton Area Ministries volunteers were ecstatic three years ago when an anonymous benefactor gave them a building for their food pantry. It seemed a castle compared with the dilapidated, cramped quarters they had been renting.

Thanks to donors, the only payment the charity group faced with their new home was a monthly phone bill. Or so they thought. Then a representative of the state-owned N.C. Railroad told them half their building was sitting in its right of way.

Invoking a little-enforced 19th century state charter, the railroad asked the nonprofit group to sign a license agreement, get insurance to cover up to $1 million in damages and pay a yearly fee of $500, with 3 percent annual increases.

The group has not signed. Food pantry director Dale Matthews' initial thought was, "Why would I pay you for something that we own?"

It's a question that is echoing all along the tracks.

Using flyover photography, the N.C. Railroad has identified about 1,500 businesses and institutions encroaching on its 317-mile, 200-foot-wide corridor from Morehead City to Charlotte. Despite the sometimes bone-rattling noise, numerous businesses -- from lumberyards to auto-repair shops -- have crept over the years toward the iron pathway.

Some have gotten too close. Sparks from tracks set cars on fire in a Durham used-car lot last year, and a freight train crashed into a building near the State Fairgrounds 2 1/2 years ago.

The N.C. Railroad has become more active about policing its right of way, citing safety and the need to preserve the corridor for future uses such as a commuter rail. Since 2004, the line has secured about 127 license agreements governing how encroaching property owners can use the buffer zone. That is more agreements than the railroad has from negotiations the previous 150 years.

Some property owners have been eager to comply with agreements, but others are balking. In many cases, the property owners have been mowing the grass and paying taxes on land that they thought was theirs.

About 200 recently contacted businesses across the state -- including 40 in the Triangle -- have yet to sign. The railroad has another 1,097 identified businesses and institutions to contact. It has mostly avoided going after homeowners or farmers so far, although there have been a few.

Responding to the complaints of small-business owners in the Charlotte area, Rep. Jeff Barnhart, a Cabarrus County Republican, said he is assembling a commission to study the matter before the issue blows up.

"We just need to slow down," Barnhart said. Otherwise, "it's going to be a class-action lawsuit. They'll roll the dice, and nobody's going to be happy."

Clearing the path

Scott Saylor, president of the N.C. Railroad, said it's more critical than ever to preserve the corridor for additional freight and passengers as the state's population booms and fuel prices rise. Moving traffic on the railroad will reduce pollution and highway congestion, he said. One train can haul the equivalent freight of 400 trucks.

"The railroad will matter more in the next 15 years than in the last 50 because its competition, the interstate highway system, is built out," he said. And, "plans in Charlotte, the Triad and the Triangle for hundreds of miles of commuter rail, light rail and high-speed rail all rely on the N.C. Railroad corridor."

In the near term, Saylor said, protecting the corridor also helps the railroad increase the number of trains on the line. A recent $22 million project to add eight miles of parallel track, for instance, helped eliminate a bottleneck between Raleigh and Selma. No additional land was needed because there was sufficient room within the existing corridor to lay track, he said. About 35 more miles of parallel track are planned by 2012.