Owners fear being tithed to the tracks.

• Author: Maley, Frank
• Position: TAR HEEL TATTLER

Dene Rich has a message for The North Carolina Railroad Co.: "I am not stupid." Certainly not stupid enough to pay the railroad rent for property she says she, her husband and uncle own--site of a Sprinkle Gas station--within 100 feet of the tracks along Market Street in Greensboro. "You know the old phrase, 'You've been railroaded'? It has quite a bit of significance to me now."

North Carolina Railroad executives say they're just trying to protect the rail corridor from more than a century of encroachment. They say the railroad's 1849 charter gives it ownership of 100 feet on both sides of the track from More-head City to Charlotte. It leased the corridor in the late 1800s to a predecessor of Norfolk Southern, which allowed other land owners to nibble into the right of way, President Scott Saylor says. Now a state-controlled real-estate investment trust, North Carolina Railroad took more responsibility for managing the corridor after Norfolk Southern's lease ended in 1999 and the two companies signed a more-limited track-usage deal.

A state law passed in 2000 allows North Carolina Railroad to lease, license or improve the property. Since then, it has been trying to license property owners along the tracks, make them pay...