I am submitting this based on my background as a professional Land Surveyor in Rhode Island, “retired.”

The Cross Kirkland Corridor (CKC) as we all know once was a rail line. As a rail line that traversed several cities and connected to the main rail line, with this connection, I believe, as has been the case in like disputes on the East Coast where I worked, the property still remains the property of the rail lines. This seems to be what the city of Kirkland indicated when they implied rail transportation “a new bus route” should be restored on the CKC. If this is the case no matter what the original reason for the purchase by the city of Kirkland, rail can or a format of rail can, and in all likelihood, will be restored at some future time.

An example I wish to share is, that in a community in Rhode Island the rail to an old abandoned mine was discontinued in the mid-1940s. In 1970, when I did a survey for the railroad, a family had built an extension to their home which crossed the “Right-of-Way.” This family bought the property from a family that owned both sides of the easement for several years. They were the second family to own this property, which they purchased it in the early 1960s. The new owners purchased the property from the second owners and believed that since they bought the property, in the mid-1960s from the second owner and it had been “unused” as a rail corridor for in-excess of 30 plus years that it was theirs. What they did, was move the existing home and add on an elaborate addition which crossed the rail easement. In 1970 when the new mine owners started to re-mine the original mine they discovered a new coal deposit (If I remember right) and asked the railroad to re-establish the line to transport the coal for marketing. The railroad agreed, as this for them was a new source of income. When the survey I was doing for the railroad was completed the railroad requested all who built on, or within the original setbacks from the rail remove their property as it belonged to the railroad or they would have it removed at the owners expense, and even though the use of the easement was abandoned, the easement was never abandoned by congress.

I say this because if you look to the establishment of rail lines throughout the country you will find that if they reference specific rail lines only by an Act of Congress can these lines be freed from any present or future rail use. I know this doesn’t appear acceptable but that is the way it is. As for this continued ownership by the railroad, it rarely appears in any land transaction deeds. So if anyone purchases land near or containing an old rail easement check to see if it has been officially abandoned by an Act of Congress.

Vincent DiGiulio, Kirkland