This paper presents a tourism research and education approach for the optimization of social capital invested in community action in support of railway tourism in the Asia Pacific region. The main hypothesis of the research is that railway restoration and regeneration, facilitating sustainable mobility, will revitalize local communities and ensure that sustainable tourism planning overcomes the problems of exclusion and inequitable distribution of the benefits of tourism development. The approach is based on studies of the economic and social value of railway heritage preservation, restoration, and regeneration for marginal destinations. It aims to demonstrate that investment in rail transport infrastructure and services can enhance opportunities for employment in tourism and hospitality enterprises. A case study on plans for the regeneration of the railways in the Philippines provides an example of the potential for tourism planning to ensure sustainable mobility and derive optimum value from social capital invested in railway tourism.