*banned 4 MarkDown love* @design_RG@qoto.org

@freemo For a trail conversion yes, you need to get the property to convert it. Lost of work and money to spend, then maintain the trail - these bridges and viaducts specially.

But I believe those people on the original article on WSJ are just paying a fee to ride on the unused tracks.

There are some rail preservation associations in the UK that actually bought stretches of rail line, and operate old steam trains as tourist attractions, and that is lovely too.

We have a couple here in Ontario, possibly there's some in the US as well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Simcoe_Railway

@freemo It's the land a railway has possession and title to, where they once operated a rail line.

They own the land, and when they decide to abandon the line, it sometimes is possible to buy it off them, and convert to a pedestrian, cycling, hiking trail.

I visited one in Virginia, called the Virginia Creeper Trail. The city of Abingdon bought the old rail line right of way, it was converted to this type of trail, and now brings many people and millions of dollars per year to the region.

Costed them about $25,000 USD at the time, so it was a huge economic gain.

I walked parts of it, no bike on hand; but there's lots of rental places available. About 100 Km long.

Some photos of it: https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=virginia+creeper+trail

And info on the trail: http://www.vacreepertrail.com/information/geninfo.htm

@freemo It's possible, yes, I haven't read the article yet - it's open on a To Do tab, but there's a lot of action here in fedi to respond to. 😉

Will read and see what they say.

I have traveled on some old right of way trails in the US, but they had lost their tracks completely. Still, they are wonderful places, like the Great Alleghany Passage trail.

150 Miles, 240 Km of scenic Pennsylvania to travel by bike, on foot or on skis this time of the year. Some nice photos of it :

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=great+allegheny+passage+trail

@kapoorrajat1857 Ooh, really?

Sorry, Pranoy. I use a Firefox version, and a Firewall bypassing add-on. Works well for many other sites too.

https://github.com/iamadamdev/bypass-paywalls-firefox

I didn't realize it was blocked to most people, sorry.

@freemo I think there's a lot of unused railway tracks out there. Using an active line will require permissions, coordination and such.

The landscape on the photos is wonderful!

Some great photos too...

https://www.wsj.com/articles/do-you-love-trains-well-you-can-buy-one-11573834371

@roadkillcobra@radical.town It's a thing, yes.

Some people might be lazier, or maybe baffled by the huge amount of results from the search engines, unable or lazy to dig and find an answer.

I usually have to find my own, it's been like that for ages.

@1ngi That's beautiful work, the engraving. And your intro post too. Welcome, 1ngi. 😄

@Natomatic
Nice post. Cyberpunk was created earlier and they showed remarkable vision and creativity. I love the genre too.

Google wasn't bad when it started - in fact it was cool, a llt nicer than the existing search engines at the time. Yahoo was always plastered with advertising, and I never liked it.

Google's search page was clean, had good results, and it built up from there. Once they went big, corporate and issued shares into the capital markets, they had a big direction change.

My first network was via local BBS systems, in the early 90's, and now that I joined fedi I find it surprisingly similar to our experience back then.

Small, isolated systems, funded and administrated independently, but still connected, even internationally, via the FidoNet network and dial up lines.

I was a node in the net once, and had people calling my system from overseas with a file request when I announced it was available.

We used different software, all of them were front end compatible.

@Full_marx , check this thread. 😉

@nilanjanaroy

@raining_night
I imagined that might be the case, in a country with the population India has, RN.

I am fortunate to live in a smaller city, 55 K people, and with rural roads nearby, a 5 to 10 min bike ride away from my home.

We also have a trail along a nearby shipping canal, totally segregated from traffic. I love riding there to relax and not worry, just exercise.

Or go out of the house, and chose a compass heading to head to. I know the country roads and can chose a plan up front, or just ride and make turns on whim.

The region is pretty flat, a few hills, sometimes I miss the mountains and hills I have seen while traveling with my bicycle. Or backpacking.

Mountains are lovely places.
@_lunawinters

@_lunawinters @raining_night
Ever trying cycling? any bike, just riding if you have a safe place to do it.

Great exercise, relaxing. My favourite.

@Vishsai @raining_night

That's my experience too. People get busier, you meet them in work situations only, it's acquaintances mostly, and even those we lose as we move on, change places or jobs, etc.

@BhavanaVarun
Cats are still at heart wild. They agreee to cohabit with us humans, getting shelter and food security.

But it's an equal relationship, no one belongs to the other; we cohabit.

I am fine with that, and find doggies silly in comparison.

Someone was saying in a post here that Cats really are running the internet. 😉
@ajeeshrp7 @Gargron @catpostingbot