W. Va. Code § 5B-1A-6

This is the official text of W. Va. Code § 5B-1A-6, part of West Virginia’s Va. Code — part of the compiled statutory law of West Virginia, published by the state as "Va. Code." Browse the sections below, each linked to its official government source.

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§5B-1A-6. Abandoned rights-of-way owned by the state prior to effective date of article.

Official statutory text

(a) No abandoned railroad right-of-way acquired by the state prior to the effective date of this article and used as a rail trail may be used for any purpose that would unreasonably limit the ability to restore rail service over the right-of-way if such service were to be required in the future.

(b) Any and all abandoned railroad rights-of-way acquired by the state prior to the effective date of this article are hereby declared held for railroad transportation purposes as of the date of acquisition, until, by executive order of the Governor, the right-of-way is declared no longer suitable for a public transportation purpose as a railroad right-of-way. Such abandoned railroad rights-of-way shall not revert by operation of law to any other ownership while being held for future railroad use in accordance with the provisions of this article.

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.