{"data":{"id":"us-ky/krs-277.402","jurisdiction":"us-ky","citation":"KRS 277.402","heading":"Preservation of railroad corridors -- Public policy -- Preliminary","body":"declaration of state railbanking.\n(1) It is the public policy of this state to preserve railroad corridors for future railroad\nuse. Toward this end, the Commonwealth recognizes that th e salvage of tracks, ties,\nsignaling equipment, ballast, and other items may indicate an intent to maximize\nreturn on present investment and not an intent to abandon any underlying easement\nfor railroad or other use and that the obtaining of federal author ity to discontinue\nservice over or abandon a corridor does not necessarily indicate an intent to\nrelinquish any property interests under state law. In any civil action to determine the\nstatus of a railroad use easement, ambiguity as to intent shall be resolved in favor of\ncontinued preservation of the corridor.\n(2) Any holder of a railroad corridor held by easement or otherwise may preserve that\ncorridor by filing with the Secretary of State a \"Preliminary Declaration of State\nRailbanking,\" concurrently serving a copy of the declaration on the Transportation\nCabinet. The declaration shall state the name of the entity holding the corridor, a\ntextual description and map of the land area encompassed by the corridor, and a\nstatement that the entity does not inte nd to abandon the corridor described in the\ndeclaration. The entity filing the declaration may at any later time cause that\ndeclaration to be withdrawn from the Secretary of State's files. While a preliminary\ndeclaration of state railbanking is on file with the Secretary of State, the corridor set\nout in the declaration shall not, regardless of the status or conclusion of any federal\nregulatory proceeding or the salvage of track and other material from the corridor,\nbe deemed abandoned and shall continue to  exist under Kentucky law and the\nproperty encompassed by the corridor shall not revert to any other form of\nownership.","path":["KRS Chapter 277"],"source_url":"https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=14031","current_through":"Includes enactments through the 2026 Regular Session","vintage":"09/05/2026","retrieved_at":"2026-09-05T20:53:29Z","sha256":"d54c5c29fbcf56029b58989db393b22e50ed789bee4200446e8aff968ed41a7d","source_id":"us-ky","stale":false,"prev":"us-ky/krs-277.400","next":"us-ky/krs-277.404"},"notice":"GroundRules: Original legal text. Not legal advice."}