By Swinford                                           H.B. No. 3117
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the purchase of railroad right-of-way following
 1-3     abandonment for rail purposes.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Title 112, Revised Statutes, is amended by adding
 1-6     Article 6349a to read as follows:
 1-7           Art. 6349a.  PURCHASE OF RIGHT-OF-WAY FOLLOWING ABANDONMENT.
 1-8     (a)  A railroad company that applies to the federal Surface
 1-9     Transportation Board or other appropriate federal agency for
1-10     permission to abandon a railroad line shall give any person who has
1-11     constructed a building or other structure, installed equipment, or
1-12     made any other type of leasehold improvement on railroad
1-13     right-of-way of the company or adjoining railroad property the
1-14     right of first refusal to purchase, at the fair market value of the
1-15     land as determined by an independent appraiser, the right-of-way or
1-16     adjoining property where the structure, equipment, or other
1-17     improvement is located.
1-18           (b)  The land subject to purchase under this article is that
1-19     which is necessary for unrestricted use of the structure,
1-20     equipment, or other leasehold improvement.
1-21           (c)  Ownership of the structure, equipment, or other
1-22     leasehold improvement shall be transferred at no cost to a person
1-23     buying the land under Subsection (a) of this article.
1-24           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
 2-1           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-2     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-3     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-4     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-5     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.