Montana Rail Link delays abandonment filing, offers rails-to-trails option for Granite County corridor

Montana Rail Link representatives told the Granite County Board of Commissioners that the company will hold off on formally filing an abandonment petition for a non‑operational branch line that runs through the county, and invited the county and local groups to consider a rails‑to‑trails conversion.

The company’s representative, Joe Roscoe of Montana Rail Link, said MRL “terminated its lease early, transitioned back to BNSF. That happened January 1 of 2024. MRL retains some real property, including four nonoperational branch lines, but they're technically still STB jurisdictional lines.” He said the railroad has prepared environmental and historic reports and published a newspaper notice but has not filed the petition for exemption or abandonment while it seeks community input.

Roscoe described the formal federal process and said the most common alternative use is a trails conversion under the National Trails System (the Trails Act). “If a party like, for instance, the county steps forward and says, yes. We'd like to express our interest,” Roscoe said, it would trigger a one‑year negotiation window under STB rules during which the county or community group would work to acquire the corridor and develop a plan. He warned that funding and long‑term maintenance are typically the biggest hurdles for such projects.

Commissioners and members of the public asked procedural and practical questions: what a formal letter of interest would require (Roscoe said a simple STB filing within 10 days after notice is the usual first step), whether the county would need to supply funding up front (Roscoe said the county has a year to negotiate and can apply for extensions), and how private landowners adjacent to the corridor might react. Roscoe encouraged early stakeholder outreach to identify ranchers or other landowners who might object and to surface potential funding partners. He also noted that the Trails Act keeps title under STB jurisdiction while conversion negotiations proceed, which can reduce later title disputes.

Local participants said there is community interest from towns and organizations. A commissioner noted Powell County had mentioned a multi‑county grant of roughly $6 million that could cover work across jurisdictions, and a local resident said Phillipsburg business and civic groups had discussed tourist‑train and trail ideas in prior planning work.

Roscoe closed by offering to return for follow‑up and said MRL will “not file this abandonment petition until I hear back from this group,” giving the county time to organize local meetings and identify interested parties.

If the county or a designated partner moves forward with a trails filing, Roscoe said the parties generally have one year to negotiate acquisition and construction details, with the possibility of extending the negotiation period up to four years by applying to the Surface Transportation Board.

The discussion ended without a formal county vote; Roscoe and county staff agreed to public outreach and to bring additional details back to the commissioners at a future meeting.