In the way?

A state-chartered railroad may be throttling too hard in policing its track right of way. A study commission is called for

Superman's PR folks bill him as being more powerful than a locomotive. We'd excuse some North Carolina property owners if they felt as if they were in a scrap with the muscle man after receiving notices from the N.C. Railroad recently about the agency's rail corridor right of way.

The railroad has several good reasons, some of them in the public's interest, to protect its corridor. But as a powerful company with special rights provided by the legislature, N.C. Railroad needs to exercise its power humanely.

Over the years, more than a thousand individuals, businesses and institutions have encroached on N.C. Railroad land, probably innocently in most cases. As The N&O's Peggy Lim reported on Sunday, the agency recently began notifying owners that a portion of a business, say, or a corner of a homeowner's lawn actually belongs to the railroad. The company is requiring businesses to sign a licensing agreement, pay fees up to $500 annually (with annual increases built in), and obtain costly insurance policies.

In Johnston County, for instance, an anonymous donor gave Clayton Area Ministries a building that was converted to a food pantry. Unbeknownst to the charity and perhaps to the donor, half of the building sits on land claimed by the railroad. The railroad has asked for a licensing agreement to be signed and for an annual fee. A spokeswoman says the fees are to pay for administrative costs.

Prudence dictates that N.C. Railroad secure its right of way. The tracks are used mainly for freight, a service that's likely to become more important as the cost of gasoline makes the movement of goods by tractor-trailer less cost effective.

The railroad also needs access to a wide right of way in urban areas where rail mass transit may soon make even more economic and environmental sense. That includes the Triangle. In other words, railroad executives do the public a favor by protecting the corridor. But they can do so in a business-like fashion without being heavy-handed.

The N.C. Railroad was chartered by the state in 1849 to ensure railway traffic to the coast. In 1896, the agency leased its 317-mile corridor, from Charlotte to Morehead City, to what is now the publicly traded Norfolk Southern railroad company, for 99 years. When that lease was renegotiated in the 1990s, N.C. Railroad took over management of the right of way and began insisting on the licensing agreements and annual fees.

During the 99 years, Norfolk Southern evidently did little to safeguard the right of way, allowing other property owners to bite off small pieces of land for their own use. Common law says owners who use and maintain land belonging to someone else over a period of time can claim legal ownership of it.

Although the General Assembly granted the N.C. Railroad protection from that practice, there are questions about exactly what land the railroad does own. Current leaders insist that it owns a 200-foot-wide corridor along the entire length of the tracks.

The railroad needs to give property owners the benefit of the doubt when disputes arise. The administrative fee is small, but is it necessary? And should the railroad now make a profit from a landowner who innocently has used a portion of the right of way for years? Perhaps compensation should flow the other way if the railroad is to reclaim active use of disputed properties in the corridor.

Responding to complaints, state Rep. Jeff Barnhart of Cabarrus County plans to assemble a study commission on the matter. Let it roll.