Railroad to area mills to close Thursday, September 20, 2007 5:03 PM PDT World Photo by Lou Sennick Tunnel conditions cited as reason The Central Oregon & Pacific Railroad announced today intends to close its shortline that links Coquille, Coos Bay/North Bend and Reedsport businesses to rail lines radiating out from Eugene. State and local officials and businesses indicated they received word from CORP officials Wednesday night and today, that the line will be closed this fall for an undetermined amount of time. A closure would affect lumber shipments out of Roseburg Forest Products' Coquille mill, the Georgia-Pacific sawmill in Coos Bay and the Southport Forest Products sawmill on Coos Bay's North Spit, in addition to American Bridge in Reedsport. "This frankly takes everybody by surprise," said Kelly Taylor, administrator of the Oregon Department of Transportation's Rail Division, who added that the state is seeking documentation. A company press release confirmed the closure is due to the poor condition of its tunnels and a rail line that "has become unsafe for our employees to use."
Ummm. Now who is at fault for this? The railroad.... So, the next step is they'll pressure for public (taxpayers pockets) funding. To upgrade, repair, or whatever terminology... Bleh. Boxcab E50
Sounds like this outfit I'm working for. If they don't have the funds to properly operate a property, they should not get it.
I'm sure it did. However, if the overall line condition is as hinted, then it probably was sliding down hill, long before that event. :tb-sad: Boxcab E50
Most of these lines that shortlines in Oregon operate over are old SP or BN lines and most of them are marginal in quality. Couple that with my state's penny-wise/pound-foolish policies when it comes to funding any sort of infrastructure, and you have a recipe for declining rail service just at a time when rail demand is climbing. I would be HAPPY to upgrade some of these lines with a taxpayer contribution for the simple reason that I don't want to later have to build more highway capacity at millions more dollars so that I can choke to death on even more truck exhaust to make up for all the lost rail service. What makes state legislators skittish is that someone will view it as a public subsidy for a private company, and, in a way, it is, but it also needs to viewed through the larger lens of HOW are we going to transport these goods most efficiently within the state's transportation infrastructure. Are the private railroads just trying to extort more money from the state. Perhaps. Will it cost us a lot more to upgrade highway capacity to take on all the trucks that would be needed. You bet. Adam
The money that CORP is spending on a new yard in Roseberg,could have been used to repair the tunnells,I can't see where they think they need a new yard???The old looks fine! JIM
This is quickly heating up here inside the state. The Oregon Department of Transportation and the Governor's office are both jumping into the fray. I suspect that there will be a lot of acrimonious public displays for a few weeks and eventually there will be some sort of deal worked out. The state is interested in Coos Bay becoming another container port (bringing us to a whopping two in the state) and I don't think state officials are going to walk away from that idea willingly. Here's another story on this: Railroad closes Coos Bay line
Talk of having a port at Coos Bay, has been on, and off, for quite some time. I can recall it being mentioned long ago. Perhaps this will finally tip something over, in the direction needed. If this doesn't provide impetus to do it, what will? Boxcab E50
IIRC, PNWR's line to the Hull-Oakes mill is also pretty reggedy-looking, and this line is supposedly had declining carloadings. What's the carload levels on the Coos Bay line? Also, I have a hard time believing that RA cannot come up with funds somewhere to install new ties and get the rails straightened......unless they plan on using state tax dollars for this purpose, holding the threat of increased truck traffic as a knife to the throat.
I'am over at CoosBay allmost every month(family)They have a lot of logs and sawdust,chips and such that need to be moved all the time! I agree this will rattle some cages real good!Every one over there is talking about the new deep water port over there.We will See!!I might add a whoe bunch of new devlopements going on! JIM
You got it right there in the last part. I think they're seeing if the state calls their bluff. I can't believe that they would walk away from hauling the traffic of a potential deepwater port.
I wonder who if anyone wins this deepwater port race? How does Coosbay compare to Eureka as far as a harbor goes? How about as far as the fruits, nuts and flakes crowd? Is Coos bay going to be the PR Nightmare that Eureka promises? What's the profile like for the Coosbay line? I assume better then the NWP. Still say they should just build one in Astoria. Of course, then you have to find a way to fit the traffic on the BNSF and UP up the gorge. Coos Bay, you could cut south, maybe rebuild the modoc and be in Nevada pretty quickly. Of course, the short answer for me personally is it's yet another piece of railroad I should have seen when I lived in Portland and had the chance. sigh
My brother lived there, from the early 1970's, to the mid-1980's. We did all sorts of stuff, when visiting. Except railfanning. Somewhere, I have a couple of pictures. But can't find them. Oh well. Hindsight is great... Boxcab E50
I have never been to Eureka,So ca'nt say,But Coos Bay has a lot of space inside the breakers.I seen a lot of large ships come up the chanel loaded.There is a lot of room there. JIM
It certainly makes more sense, in some respects, than running ships all the way up the Columbia to the confluence with the Willamette for the Port of Portland and Port of Vancouver (WA, not BC). I am saying this as someone who lives right near Terminal 4 in Portland, and who is well aware of the sorts of business and industries and intermodal opportunities that being a port represents. When you compare the $150 million that the Corps of Engineers estimates current dredging operations to cost, taking the channel in the Columbia from 40 to 43 feet, those repairs to the tunnels and upgrades to the track leading to Coos Bay start seeming less significant. True, we have the existing intermodal yards here, but why I am concerned is that some of the super huge ships are already passing us by because they can't maneuver in the rivers here, and I don't see that trend reversing. The thinking in my home state has long been to concentrate shipping in one place, the idea being that having two ports might detract from the original one or dilute their effect. All one has to do is look a little north and see that Washington has the Port of Seattle AND the Port of Tacoma and both are busy ports. I would hate to see my state miss out on what I see as increasing shipping across the Pacific because of a couple million bucks to fix some tunnels.
Well, it's not just a couple of tunnels right. You've got to upgrade the line significantly to accomidate intermodal and have a place for those trains to go afterwords.
another article... Questions remain on rail closure By Elise Hamner, City Editor Saturday, September 22, 2007 12:09 PM PDT While public officials in Coos County are trying to sort out the closure situation on the Coos Bay rail line, workers at the Coquille plywood mill say they’ve been told their last railcars will make it to Eugene. There are 26 cars assigned to Roseburg Forest Products that are parked at the Coquille plant or in Coos Bay, according to Hank Snow, Roseburg’s vice president of human resources. Those have been or will be loaded with outgoing lumber. “When that’s done, that’s it,” he said Friday afternoon. Snow added that Roseburg officials still are assessing the impacts of the rail line closure and trying to figure out why Central Oregon & Pacific Railroad gave such short notice. CORP called customers Thursday, announcing it was stopping train service Friday. The company filed an embargo on the line Friday and blamed the closure on unsafe conditions in three tunnels. The short line runs from Coquille to Eugene. It gave no timeline when the tracks may re-open. CORP’s marketing and sales manager, Tom Hawksworth, said in a press release, “it’s not safe to make the repairs until after the rainy season next Spring.” Come Monday in Roseburg, CORP’s general manager, Kevin Spradlin, and a Union Pacific representative are to be present at a meeting with lawmakers and business leaders from throughout Southern Oregon, Sen. Joanne Verger, D-Coos Bay, said in a voice mail Friday afternoon. This is the same group that put together the Oregon Gateway project. Its efforts evolved into pursuing the deepening of the lower Coos Bay shipping channel. The group will be looking at its next step in the project, but the railroad won’t be ignored. “Certainly the situation will come up for discussion there,” Verger said. The Oregon International Port of Coos Bay’s executive director, Jeffrey Bishop, intends to be at Monday’s meeting to give an update on the dredging project. He said he had not heard from CORP, but UP officials were calling on customers Friday. “My perception is that Union Pacific has expressed a lot of concern for their customers who access their system through CORP,” he said. CORP officials did not return repeated phone calls Thursday or Friday.
Understood, but it's still gotta be cheaper than trying to assemble a right-of-way after it is gone. The dredging of the Columbia at $150 million is an estimate. The Corps of Engineers has a way of running well past their estimates on pretty much all Columbia River projects. I would be willing to hazard a guess that $150 million would fix the tunnels and get a fair way toward upgrading the line to Coos Bay.
The columbia is also a larger water system and the dredging will have a far larger environemental impact then the dredging of coos bay or even the Eureka plans. (which is why I said astoria) All too often these kinds of public works projects fall into the blue state/red state arguments that do nothing but doom projects. Coos bay at any reasonable price is probably a better choice. In either case, it sounds like UP isn't in the mood to give up on the current customer base and potential additional customers. That likely bodes well. Also, CORP sounds like they aren't saying no to repairs, just not right now. Which isn't to say they were planning repairs, just that it's not something that can be done right now. I can only imagine how Rainforest weather combined with snow could have a negative effect on line repairs.
