[throwawayboise]

A lot of towns used to have rail service with spur lines or short lines. A lot of those have been turned into bike or walking trails. Good luck ever getting those back to their original use; re-provisioning rail service to these places will mean acquiring and clearing new routes.

[machinerychorus]

I'm not sure if this is true everywhere, but I lived in a town with a "rail trail" and my understanding was that the railroad company was renting the land to the town, and could put it back into use whenever they wanted.