Appeal:
1. “Does the issuance of a NITU by the STB trigger a per se categorical physical taking under the Trails Act, rendering any ‘causation’ standard inappropriate?”
2. “Does the duration of the taking end when the railroad’s authorization to abandon expires if the railroad thereafter fails to consummate federal abandonment and state law abandonment occurred during the pendency of the NITU?”
Cross-Appeal:
1. “Whether the Board’s issuance of a NITU causes a physical taking even when the NITU results in neither a trail use agreement nor a delay in abandonment and the resulting termination of easements in the rail corridor.”
2. “Whether, in the alternative, any taking is temporary and concludes when the NITU expires.”
1. “[W]e are not persuaded by the government’s argument that the Court of Federal Claims erred in its causation analysis.”
2. “We agree with the government that the taking ended upon expiration of the NITU . . . because it was on that date that the United States was no longer responsible for mandating the continuation of the easement.”
