ohmanger
Ah sorry confusing terminology. :) I was asking why the abandoned rail was mapped as a separate entity to the cycle path which follows its route
https://osm.org/way/919089580
https://osm.org/way/302647039

I've since spoken to Mauls and they said they prefer it because they can add historic information via tags and can also ignore "wiggles" where the path deviates, e.g. where gates are.

I'm personally not sure I agree with this or if it is even in the scope of OSM (because of this decision the cycle path is missing useful information), but am not currently prepared to take action.