Photo of a cut out Hillside next to a Railroad Right of Way,

A Photograph showing a man standing on a railroad right-of-way next to a cut out hillside. A small set of rails can be seen on the right.

A Railroad’s right of way is its legal claim to any corridors of land used for its operations, going beyond tracks to include other needs like signals or maintaining a safe environment for trains. Some of the permitted safety measures can include chopping down trees, reducing vegetation, and managing drainage operations. This ownership can be purchased, granted by the government, or in the form of an “easement,” in which the railroad has the legal right to use someone’s land for railroad operations while the land’s owner is unable to interfere with those operations. “Right of way” can also refer to the land corridor itself, as it does in this photo for the portion of land next to the cutaway hillside.

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