Senate Transportation hears rail-trails budget briefing; official highlights usage, funding and accessibility projects

Jackie Casino, rail trails program manager at the Agency of Transportation, told the Senate Transportation committee that the state manages 145 miles of railbanked trails across four corridors and that the network runs through 31 towns with 27 trailheads, 90 bridges and 738 culverts.

Casino said trail use is robust and measured: permanent counters show the LVRT in Morristown averages about 200 daily trips (roughly 75,000 annually), while the BB Spur averages about 160 daily and up to 10,000 trips a year. She said 431 users completed the program’s most recent annual survey and 461 businesses are registered with a trail-friendly business program. "The economic impact of these trails cannot be overstated," Casino told the committee, citing a 2023 study that projected about $4.7 million in annual sales and as many as 75 jobs tied to activity on the LVRT in Caledonia County.

The program is small but connected, Casino said: a core team of four staff supports statewide operations, with up to two additional seasonal field hires in peak months, and the agency relies on partnerships with volunteer clubs and regional planning commissions for maintenance and outreach. Each corridor has a rail trail council responsible for local coordination and implementing federally required 3–5 year management plans, she said.

On funding, Casino said roughly 80% of programmatic dollars come from federal sources and identified Surface Transportation Block Grant funds, congressional earmarks and the Carbon Reduction Program among the main sources used for projects and capital work. Planned 2027 priorities include operations and maintenance, capital projects such as trailhead improvements and an extension into downtown St. Albans, and staffing to support asset management and integration into agency systems.

Casino described an accessibility project to build a path to the Fisher Covered Bridge, noting the structure is a remaining historic rail bridge; that project is out to bid and expected to be completed in the near term. She also briefed the committee on permissible recreational uses: hunting and fishing are permitted from the trail corridor where users step off the 10-foot trail core, but not from standing on the core itself, and trapping is limited to nuisance-animal control in coordination with wildlife biologists.

Committee members pressed on railbanking and the possibility of reactivating rail service. Casino said the state acts as trail sponsor holding corridors in railbanked status and that, if reinstatement of rail were later determined to be the highest and best economic use, the federal/state process exists to return a corridor to rail service; she added she would need to consult higher officials on whether the state would operate any reactivated rail service.

Casino also described master license agreements with VAST (snowmobile) clubs that govern grooming and seasonal access on three of the four corridors and said those partnerships have helped keep trails accessible in winter while preserving ADA access and managing impacts to bridges and other infrastructure.

The committee asked for more detailed project materials; Casino said she would provide supporting documents and noted some project descriptions appear in the committee packet. The hearing concluded with members thanking staff for the presentation and a brief procedural close.