Rail-Trail Project: Progress At Last

     For several decades, a railroad popularly known as “the Swamp Rabbit” operated from downtown Greenville to River Falls. For the first six miles, the line followed the Reedy River and then left the river to traverse through what is now the Furman University campus on toward the mountains.

One of the cleared sections of the Rail-Trail, with a few of the many volunteers who worked all summer to clear the line.

In 1998, Railtex, which had previously acquired the line from Greenville & Northern Railroad, ceased its operations and was preparing to put the entire line on the market. It was a breathtaking, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the Greenville community and the Upstate. Here was the chance to acquire the entire line and turn it into a trail connecting downtown to Furman and Travelers Rest.(1)

Public acquisition of the line became one of Upstate Forever’s very first projects. We worked with the Rails to Trails Conservancy in placing the line in the “Rail-Trail Bank,” giving Greenville County sufficient time to acquire the entire corridor from Railtex. To their great credit, the County Council came through and approved the funds to purchase it. The line is actually owned by a local entity called the Greenville County Economic Development Corporation (GCEDC), the majority of whose members are appointed by Council.

But for the next six years nothing happened. A former customer of the railroad filed a lawsuit in state court and a claim with the Surface Transportation Board (STB) in Washington, seeking millions of dollars in damages. These actions paralyzed the GCEDC— they were unwilling to do anything on the project until it was resolved. The state court suit was dismissed, and the STB finally issued its ruling earlier this year, awarding the claimant only nominal damages.

That ruling finally got things going. The GCEDC filed an official petition with the STB for abandonment of the line. In addition, in order to reserve the right to establish a trail, Upstate Forever filed a request with the STB to negotiate an “interim trail use” agreement with GCEDC following abandonment.

On October 12, the STB issued its ruling, allowing the line to be abandoned and an interim trail use agreement to be negotiated! That’s great news, but a major hurdle remains. Two companies have filed with the STB “offers of financial assistance”— essentially offers to buy the line. The STB has the authority under federal law to approve one of the OFAs and actually force the GCEDC to sell the line — if that happens, trail use would be delayed for many years, if not foreclosed permanently. Upstate Forever has retained its own counsel, an expert in rail-trail issues, to carefully monitor and participate in this process. We'll keep you posted.

Meanwhile, an awesome group of volunteers, led by Upstate Forever Board Chairman Carlton Owen, was not content to sit around waiting for word from Washington. They spent every Saturday this summer clearing away the kudzu, briars and bushes from almost the entire length of the line so all of us could better see and understand the enormous potential of this project. A group from the Greenville Natural History Association also participated in cleanups on Wednesday mornings.

The results are stunning. You can now easily envision the trail linking Greenville to Furman and Travelers Rest and being used by thousands of walkers, joggers and bicyclists. You can appreciate the economic boost that this use will provide to local businesses. (Case in point: Reedy River Falls Park.) You can see why this is, indeed, one of the Upstate’s great projects.

(1) It is not clear whether Railtex's title includes any of the original line from Travelers Rest to River Falls.