About the Project
The Corridor
The PNWR Newberg Branch is a roughly 15-mile railroad corridor running from Sherwood, Oregon south through Rex Hill to Newberg. The line is dormant — no regular freight service has operated on it for years, and the track and infrastructure are deteriorating.
Despite this, the right-of-way remains intact as a continuous, linear corridor through wine country, farmland, and small communities. This is increasingly rare and increasingly valuable.
The Opportunity
Under federal railbanking law, dormant rail corridors can be preserved for future rail use by converting them to interim trail use. This prevents the right-of-way from fragmenting through easement reversion — a process that would make reassembly effectively impossible.
Railbanking has been used successfully hundreds of times across the country to create trails while preserving rail corridors. The legal framework is well-established.
What We’re Working Toward
A staged approach to corridor acquisition and trail development:
- Research and coalition-building — understanding the legal status of the line, Allied Systems’ common carrier rights, and the ownership structure of the right-of-way
- Nonprofit formation — establishing a qualified trail manager entity that can hold a railbanking agreement
- STB railbanking filing — invoking federal interim trail use provisions to preserve the corridor
- Trail development — phased construction beginning with the most viable segments
Why This Matters
This corridor connects two cities with no existing safe, separated bicycle or pedestrian route between them. The corridor offers a direct, flat, car-free alternative through one of Oregon’s most scenic landscapes.
It’s also a connection to regional trail systems and transit systems. Metro’s long-range regional trails plan identifies gaps in the southwest metro area — this corridor helps fill one.