I believe this is more or less a private venture. The US has 1000’s of miles of abandoned railroad right of ways. It is actually a good way to redevelop the land for public use.
Even if it gets some government funding would you rather see those funds go into Homosexual advocacy?
I have seen where they have turned abandoned railroads into trails and it’s actually kinda cool. I’ve biked on some of them. They cool part is that they cut through some fairly long distances and keep you out of the way of traffic, and in most cases, in (though usually not very deep) to nature. The downside to them is that they are typically rather straight and can have long stretches of boring, as the old RR lines cut through topography and avoided turns for efficiency
If I were terminally unemployed, I think it’d be interesting to hike one across the country
“The US has 1000’s of miles of abandoned railroad right of ways.”
It should go back to the landowners in most cases particularly when specified in the original takings. Many farms had a railroad that cut diagonally across their land. If you owned land you wouldn’t want a limited use trail across your land giving access to who knows who to your property.