I agree on the relative environmental impact of dredging. I didn't see much point in dredging the Columbia another three feet when our port has a hard time dealing with the super-size ships and when that clown who bought the shipyard in Portland sold off our super-size dry dock not even a few years after he said he wouldn't sell off the shipyards assets. Whatever the schedule for the repairs and whatever the laws and AAR regulations are, it's still bad customer service to tell your line's customers one day that their service is ending the next day. At least with the Bailey Branch the PNWR gave a little bit of notice. One day's notice does nothing to reinforce customer confidence in rail transportation as a viable option, and it may very well cause other potential customers near CORP's system to find another shipping method. I don't think there's a red-state/blue-state argument here. The fact is that the major west coast shipping ports are doing loads of business and other communities, such as Eureka, Astoria, and Coos Bay, could benefit by having container shipping if they want it. My sense about Coos Bay is that they are EAGER for anything that will provide jobs that are no longer available in the timber industry, and deepwater ports tend to offer good jobs with decent pay and benefits. I personally think that deepwater ports make more sense in places where you can get some actual deep water, and that, unfortunately, doesn't really include the Port of Portland, which I see getting eventually outstripped by the size of ships that shippers are using. I can't speak to Eureka's suitability or community attitude toward a deepwater port as I have no familiarity with it. I just hope someone doesn't do something stupid and ditch the Coos Bay rail line for short term greed and lose all the long-term potential.
Exactly, Also, I think there's room for coosbay and Astoria, and maybe even Eureka. Of course, the real trick will be getting all the ancillary jobs that come with a port both blue and white collar.
If handled well, I'm certain they'd have no troubles attracting workers to a new port at Coos Bay. As well as the associated support industries. Boxcab E50
The gloves are coming off... <http://www.oregonnews.com/article/20070926/NEWS/70925037> ODOT stops switchyard funds after railroad closes line JOHN SOWELL, jsowell@newsreview.info September 26, 2007 The Oregon Department of Transportation has placed a hold on millions in funding to help Central Oregon & Pacific Railroad move its switching yard out of Roseburg after the railroad last week shut down a spur line between Eugene and Coquille. The railroad made the decision to close the segment after determining it could cost up to $7 million to make repairs to a series of nine tunnels located along the route. Each of the tunnels is at least 115 years old, according to a statement from the railroad's parent company, RailAmerica. The announcement caught shippers and state officials, including Rep. Susan Morgan of Green, off guard. There was no advance warning that a closure was necessary, Morgan said Monday. The spur line serves a number of businesses, including the American Bridge plant at Bolon Island outside Reedsport and the Coquille plywood plant operated by Roseburg Forest Products. In addition, Georgia-Pacific and the Southport Forest Products sawmill in Coos Bay also rely on the line. Without it, products must be shipped by truck to Eugene, where they are loaded onto rail cars. That step adds an estimated 10 to 15 percent to shipping costs. ODOT officials have asked for a copy of an engineering report that Central Oregon & Pacific relied upon in making its decision to close the route, Morgan said. ODOT engineers will examine the track and determine whether the repair estimates are accurate. On Monday, about 40 members of the Oregon Gateway program headed by Morgan met at ODOT's Roseburg regional office, along with representatives from the offices of Gov. Ted Kulongoski and U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio. The meeting had been scheduled prior to the railroad's announcement, but the shutdown of the spur line was a heavily discussed topic during the 2 1/2-hour meeting. The Oregon Gateway program includes public and private stakeholders from five counties, including Douglas County, who have joined together to identify needs and push for public transportation investments. "There was concern that there is no plan to repair the line," Morgan said after the meeting, which was closed to the public. Railroad officials and Kelly Taylor, head of ODOT'S Rail Division, were not immediately available for comment. You can reach reporter John Sowell at 957-4209 or by e-mail at jsowell@newsreview.info.
Getting railroaded: Shutdown of coastal short line looks suspicious A Register-Guard Editorial Published: Sunday, September 30, 2007 Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., and state Sen. Joanne Verger, D-Coos Bay, are right to question last week's abrupt closure of the Central Oregon and Pacific Railroad's 120-mile short line between Coquille and Eugene. The closure of the only rail line connecting the two communities appears highly suspicious. As The Register-Guard's Winston Ross reported Friday, the railroad company, commonly referred to as CORP, gave its customers just a day's notice before announcing an "embargo" on the line last week. The company said it could not afford the $7 million required to upgrade unsafe tunnels along the route and that even with government assistance there is no way the line can be safely be reopened in the near future. If the line is in such bad shape, the railroad company should have sounded the alarm as soon as it became aware of the situation. Its failure to do so raises the possibility that the company is shutting down the line without notice for business rather than safety reasons. Federal law bars companies from closing rail lines without notice for business reasons. Such closures require companies to follow a detailed legal process known as "abandonment," during which time railroads must continue operating lines targeted for closure. The company's explanation seems even more dubious in light of its refusal to document the existence of an immediate safety crisis that might provide legal justification for an emergency shutdown. A government inspection of the line last fall noted that one of the tunnels was in "poor condition," but the situation was not serious enough to prompt federal action. CORP officials say they plan to seek a "public-private" partnership to make eventual repairs. But it's unclear how serious they are, especially given the company's statements that the line doesn't have enough traffic to justify a major expenditure. It's also questionable how much business traffic will be left if the rail closure is allowed to continue. At least three major employers on the coast who depend on the line say they may be unable to remain open without the rail link. Georgia-Pacific, which ships nearly two-thirds of its wholesale building products by rail, closed its Coos Bay sawmill Monday and laid off 120 employees. Meanwhile, Roseburg Forest Products says the line closure will force it to spend up to $5,000 more per day in trucking costs. And Southport Forest Products has stopped taking orders from distant locations and says the rail shutdown threatens the company's very survival. There appears to be frustratingly little that anyone can do to remedy this situation. Verger has demanded that CORP provide written justification for the shutdown, but it's unclear whether the company has any legal obligation to do so. DeFazio has asked the Federal Railroad Administration to look into the matter, but the agency has dismayingly little control over private railroads, which have primary responsibility for inspecting and maintaining their own tracks, tunnels and bridges. Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., has proposed amending the Railroad Safety Enhancement Act to bolster federal inspections and reviews, but the legislation would have no effect on the short line closure. The most promising option may be the Oregon International Port of Coos Bay's plans to sue the railroad for breaching contracts with the port that require notice before service is interrupted. That could force CORP to either justify the closure or to resume rail operations while it pursues either the abandonment process or the public dollars needed to make repairs. The short line shutdown is symptomatic of a larger national rail infrastructure crisis that is the result of inadequate government regulation and public and private investment. The closure of a single 120-mile stretch on the Oregon Coast graphically illustrates the price that communities and businesses across the nation will pay if that neglect continues.
DeFazio calls for rail probe By Elise Hamner, City Editor Saturday, September 29, 2007 9:52 AM PDT A train engineer gives one last wave, as a final Central Oregon & Pacific Railroad train leaves Coos Bay on Wednesday morning. The engine pulled a long train of empty cars, a few carrying lumber for Geargia-Pacific mill and some partial loads. The engineer said the train would head to Coos Bay's North Spit. Today, CORP started pulling the cars to Eugene. The company announced last week it is ceasing operations on the Eugene-to-Coquille line due to unsafe tunnels. World Photo by Lou Sennick Oregon Congressman Peter DeFazio is calling for a Federal Railroad Administration investigation into the Central Oregon & Pacific Railroad’s closure of the Coos Bay short line. DeFazio sent the agency’s administrator, Joseph Boardman, a letter Wednesday asking his agency to review CORP engineering reports. They are scheduled to talk Tuesday. DeFazio also wants the agency’s inspectors on the ground — in railroad tunnels the company deemed unsafe. “I also request that FRA tunnel inspectors perform a physical inspection of the line and evaluate what, if any, repairs are necessary to make the line safe for operation,” DeFazio wrote. The letter followed the railroad’s action to file an embargo on the line Sept. 21. The embargo indicated the line was closed because three tunnels are unsafe. On Thursday, the railroad agency’s public affairs specialist, Warren Flatau, didn’t say how soon FRA inspectors might be on the Coos Bay line’s tracks. “I wouldn’t want to speculate,” he said. “Unequivocally, we will seek to be fully responsive to the congressman’s concerns,” he added. More pressure The state of Oregon also wants answers. Railroad officials said they based their decision to close the tracks on engineers’ reports and their concern about employee safety. The governor’s office and the Oregon Department of Transportation’s Rail Division are demanding copies of the private engineering reports. The state hadn’t received copies as of Thursday morning. But that’s not the only pressure on the railroad. ODOT has put on hold plans to give CORP $7 million from the 2005 Legislature’s Connect Oregon program to help build a $9.6 million rail yard next to an existing one in Winchester. “That project comes into question with all the recent events,” said Kelly Taylor, Rail Division administrator. It’s unusual for a private railroad to get any public money. But, the railroad made a convincing case. The project was to alleviate over capacity at the rail yard in Roseburg. The railroad had said in a grant request two years ago that the project would give forest products companies more opportunities to ship by rail. The Coos Bay line served at least three South Coast wood products companies, which now have no direct access to rail service. “We need to understand what’s happening, what’s going on and whether or not this project should go forward,” Taylor said. On Wednesday, the final train slowly slid out of Coos Bay. The engineer aboard said he was heading out to pick up the railcars remaining at the sawmill on the North Spit. Those cars were leaving the area for Eugene this morning. CORP has told sawmill managers this is the last load. Silence on the line CORP has issued no public statements since an initial press release announcing the closure. But this week, railroad officials sat down with members of the Southwest Oregon Economic Expansion and Transportation Team in a closed door meeting in Roseburg. The group gathered as it has for nearly two years to talk about the Oregon Gateway project to attract a container shipping terminal development to Coos Bay. CORP and Union Pacific staffers are part of that group, as they have been all along. People attending the meeting reported that the Coos Bay line closure came up. The conversation was tense. CORP officials reportedly said the railroad had invested $47 million over the years in upgrading tracks in Oregon. Rep. Wayne Krieger, R-Gold Beach, apparently challenged that. He demanded to see the documents proving it. Throughout those meetings in the past, the group has discussed poor conditions of the CORP’s tracks on the Siskiyou line down to California, said Rep. Susan Morgan, R-Myrtle Creek. “The railroad has made no secret about it,” she said. In fact, the railroad is under a 2-year-old safety compliance agreement with the Federal Railroad Administration. The feds issued it less than two years ago after deciding the railroad was inadequately maintaining and inspecting its tracks. The agreement pointed out that in visits to CORP tracks in Oregon from 1998 to late 2005, FRA and state inspectors found 4,067 noncompliance conditions. That included everything from gauge defects to defective cross ties, rails and rail joints. There was no mention of tunnels. Profit or not? Repairs are costly, especially now when rail business might be slowing. Morgan said she knows sawmills have cut production due to a slump in the housing market, which undoubtedly has affected shipments to the railroad. A Georgia-Pacific employee said that has been a factor in a slowdown in operations at the Coos Bay sawmill. No numbers are available on the exact number of rail cars heading from the South Coast to Eugene. In 2003, the railroad company took a big hit when Weyerhaeuser Co. closed its mill on the North Spit. Then, the railroad lost 315 cars per month. This year in an annual report to the Oregon Railroad Division, CORP said it moved 45,017 rail cars on its Oregon tracks in 2006. Taylor estimated 10 to 15 percent of those came from the Coos Bay line and said she has no idea whether the line was profitable. It’s a private business. The company doesn’t have to share that information. “It either generates revenue or you don’t do it anymore,” she said. Speculation In the end, though, state officials and local lawmakers say they are disturbed most by the attitude and responses of officials of CORP and its parent company RailAmerica. When asked what their plan is to repair the Coos Bay short line and re-open for business, officials were blunt. “We have no plans,” Taylor said of CORP’s response this week to the officials gathered at the meeting in Roseburg. “They got asked again, ‘We have no plans,’” Taylor said of the repeated response. “Saying you are calling an embargo with no plan is absurd,” she added. That’s led to speculation. “If you’re not going to make repairs, then you head down the abandonment line,” Taylor said. There’s a federal process required for abandonment. In the end, simply it can mean a railroad walks away. It can pull up its tracks, sell them for scrap and sell the right of way. There have been rumors of exactly that. In past months railroad online bloggers have suggested the railroad might also end operations on the Siskiyou line. CORP reportedly denied that when pressed for an answer. “It’s a real negative atmosphere when everybody is basing the discussions on rumors,” Morgan said. “What we really need is the CORP to sit down at the table.”
2 more Railroad closure may have big impact on Douglas County Story Published: Oct 11, 2007 at 5:53 PM PDT By Dan Bain Video The closing of the rail line between Eugene and Coquille could have big impacts on Douglas and Coos County. The Central Oregon and Pacific Line runs through western Douglas County and served mills and other businesses like American Bridge, but when Corp shut down the line due to safety concerns in the nine tunnels along the stretch, those businesses had to find alternate shipping. County Commissioners have concerns that it will have a big effect on whether some companies can do business. Commissioner Doug Robertson says, "The port of Coos Bay is contemplating legal action against RailAmerica for breach of contract. We're involved in working with Coos County and probably will fashion a resolution for consideration in the issue as well. It has ramifications in Oregon in general, but in particular Coos County and Douglas County." Robertson says it appears there will be a sub-committee hearing in the senate scheduled by Senator Gordon Smith in the middle of November. Railroad officials say inspectors from the Federal Railroad Administration have been inspecting the rail this week. The railroad says it will take millions of dollars to upgrade the tunnels. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Federal inspectors check Ore. coast short line 10/12/2007, 1:37 a.m. PDT The Associated Press COOS BAY, Ore. (AP) — Federal inspectors this week were on the tracks and in the tunnels of a 120-mile short line between Eugene and Coquille, checking to see if Central Oregon and Pacific Railroad made the right call when it closed the line last month for safety reasons. Railroad officials have said three of the nine tunnels on the line pose a safety risk to workers. The action has hampered at least four major employers on the south coast that rely on the line to move lumber, wood chips and hunks of steel. Georgia-Pacific reopened its lumber mill in Coos Bay on Monday after shutting down on Sept. 24. At the time it closed, company officials said they needed to work out alternative transportation plans. About 65 percent of the sawmill's lumber previously went out over the Coos Bay short line to Eugene. Trucks are now doing the hauling. When the railroad announced the shutdown, company officials said there wasn't enough traffic on the line to justify the estimated $7 million in repairs. The comment led some politicians and business people to suspect that the railroad was really trying to abandon the line or at least force the government to help foot the bill. U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., asked the Federal Railroad Administration to inspect the line and determine if the safety concerns hold up. If not, the congressman could challenge the embargo, and possibly force the line to reopen. The railroad has provided a copy of its engineering report on the tunnels to the Oregon Department of Transportation and the Federal Railroad Administration, said Kelly Taylor, the state's rail division administrator. Taylor said it appears the report is thorough, but she declined to discuss specifics until after she gets feedback from a state engineer. At issue is whether the railroad was justified in filing an embargo on the line, which is allowed under federal law if there's an immediate condition that requires a shutdown, and there's an accompanying plan to fix the problem. At a meeting of south coast transportation interests on Thursday, Martin Callery, director of communications and freight mobility for the Oregon International Port of Coos Bay, said he had heard that the railroad was losing more than a million dollars annually on the line, but that better traffic on the Siskiyou short line was blunting that impact. Callery said that, based on discussions with railroad officials, he estimates the closure of the Coos Bay line will put an additional 1,131 trucks per month on the road — or 52 per day. North Bend City Administrator Jan Willis said she was concerned about the increased truck traffic.
Let the fight begin! Ding Ding... Oregon port sues railroad over closed short line 10/23/2007, 6:54 p.m. PDT The Associated Press COOS BAY, Ore. (AP) — The Oregon International Port of Coos Bay has filed a $15 million lawsuit against a railroad that closed a short line spur on its route from Eugene to Coquille. The complaint filed in U.S. District Court contends the Central Oregon and Pacific Railroad failed to provide the required 180 days notice that it would shut down a leased spur to the bay's North Spit. It also says the railroad is required by the lease governing the Coos Bay Railroad Bridge to get the Port's written agreement before suspending or ending operations. The railroad says three of the nine tunnels on the 120-mile line pose a safety risk to workers, and there isn't enough traffic to warrant repairs. It abruptly closed the line Sept. 21. The action has affected at least four major employers on the coast, forcing some shipments to go by truck. Scott Williams, general counsel of CORP's parent company, RailAmerica, told The World newspaper of Coos Bay the railroad still is weighing its options. "I'm not going to respond in the news media," he said. The rail spur cost almost $5 million. The port took out a $1.2 million loan for construction and still owes $886,000 on it, according to its finance director, Donna Nichols
Wouldn't surprise me if they had a "mystery fire", ala tunnel 13 just to get their way! :thumbs_down:
Updates Eugene (OR) Register-Guard: http://www.register guard.com/ csp/cms/sites/ dt.cms.support. viewStory. cls?cid=22634& sid=1&fid= 1 or: http://tinyurl. com/24hqgo Railroad wants public and private help fixing coast line By Winston Ross - The Register-Guard Published: Thursday, November 15, 2007 The railroad company that shut down the 120-mile short line between Coquille and Eugene in September unveiled a plan on Wednesday to fix the line, including problems that they initially said caused the closure. It isn’t cheap. The cost of repairs has ballooned from an original figure of $7 million to $23 million. And the Central Oregon and Pacific Railroad wants four other public and private entities to help foot the bill — an unprecedented idea, at least in Oregon. At a gathering of politicians and industry officials in Eugene, CORP explained why RailAmerica — CORP’s parent company, which was bought earlier this year by a Boca Raton, Fla., hedge fund — decided to shut the critical transportation route down, leaving up to a half-dozen key employers on the south coast in the lurch. Company officials also said they want to do more than just repair nine tunnels, which they said need nearly $7 million in upgrades and which they originally cited as the reason for closing the rail line. They also want $2.4 million to fix 44,000 railroad ties; $10.4 million for bridge work to address defects that are “unsafe and could cause failure at any time,” according to the company’s engineers; and $3 million to fix drainage problems in the tunnel. The company does not propose to make those repairs on its own, however. It wants a five-way partnership, with each stakeholder kicking in $4.66 million, plus $10 million in state subsidies over five years to “defray” the $1.5 million annually that the railroad says it loses on the line. The state would then effectively be paying the railroad $500,000 annually to operate the line. The partners that CORP suggested include itself, the Union Pacific railroad, the state Department of Transportation, the Oregon International Port of Coos Bay and the companies who ship their goods on the short line. The shippers’ $4.66 million would come by way of a surcharge of $204 per car over four years, a surcharge that Roseburg Forest Products’ traffic manager Andy Jeffers estimated would add 5 percent to 7 percent to the company’s transportation costs. That’s if the plan passes muster with the four other entities involved. CORP is asking the stakeholders to decide whether they want to pony up in a month, which is “impossible” on the state’s end, said state Rep. Terry Beyer, D-Springfield. “We do not work that fast, especially in the interim,” Beyer said at the meeting at Valley River Inn. U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., called the plan “outrageous,” summing up the proposal as “a group of super-rich hedge fund managers who are trying to extort the Port of Coos Bay and the people of Oregon for a few million, which to them (the hedge fund mangers) is chump change. Their head of investments is worth $2.5 billion.” DeFazio said the better option is to force CORP to sell the line — an option the port is exploring — via a “feeder line application.” That process involves an outside buyer convincing the federal Surface Transportation Board that a railroad has either abandoned a line or let it deteriorate to an unsatisfactory level. The board can then force the company to sell it, and the buyer can contract with another railroad to provide service. With CORP’s assertion that it’s losing $1.5 million per year on the short line, “we could make them pay us to take it,” DeFazio said, or seize the line altogether via eminent domain. “These people clearly are not interested in providing a critical public service,” DeFazio said. “I don’t care how rich they are, how powerful they are. We can beat them.” An option discussed earlier was to fight the shutdown itself, by challenging whether conditions in the tunnels truly warranted it. But a Federal Railways Administration report, to be released today, shows that the tunnels really are in as bad a shape as the company says, so that’s no longer an option, DeFazio said. “They’ve let the line deteriorate to the point where there’s an arguable case it was necessary to close the line for safety purposes,” DeFazio said. RailAmerica’s vice president for its Western region, Bob Jones, apologized to those who attended the meeting Wednesday for the 24 hours’ notice the company gave shippers and government entities before it applied to shut the line down. “We didn’t do a very good job of bringing people up to speed,” Jones said. He said the company had been concerned about safety in the tunnels for much of the past year, but decided in September, after the mine collapse in Utah and the bridge collapse in Minnesota, that the situation on the short line was urgent. “Early in my career, I had three industrial fatalities I had to report to families. You don’t ever want to have to do that,” Jones said. He blamed the line’s previous owner, Southern Pacific, for letting it deteriorate, but said RailAmerica didn’t know about the line’s poor condition when it purchased the line. Asked why CORP doesn’t just sell a rail line that it said loses $1.5 million annually, he said, “We don’t just want to give up on it.” A looming question on Wednesday was what impact a proposed shipping container port for Coos Bay would have on the picture. It would require the entire line to be completely rebuilt to allow for much bigger trains. Jones said he couldn’t count on the port happening. “We would love to have somebody tell us about their plans there,” Jones said. “We have never been approached by whoever it is talking about developing the port, rather than just guess about whether it’s going to happen or not. Somebody has got to make a deal with us. We own the line.” State Sen. Joanne Verger, D-Coos Bay, said after the meeting that “if you want someone to bail you out of a problem, create a crisis,” adding that she didn’t know if the entities involved would OK the plan. “With this particular rail line, there’s not the strongest level of trust,” Verger said. “This crisis was created with 24 hours’ notice.” ----- Winston Ross can be reached at <mailto:rgcoast@fastnet. com>. ____________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _ The Oregonian (Portland OR): http://www.oregonli ve.com/business/ oregonian/ index.ssf? /base/business/ 119517991033480. xml&coll= 7 or: http://tinyurl. com/32ha8h DeFazio decries railroad bailout Eugene to coast - Central Oregon & Pacific's plan is to "extort" taxpayers, the congressman says Friday, November 16, 2007 The Oregonian EUGENE OR -- U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., reacted angrily to a railroad company's suggestion that taxpayer dollars be used to help reopen a short-line railroad that runs from Eugene to the Oregon coast. Central Oregon & Pacific Railroad closed the 120-mile line in September for safety reasons. The action has hampered at least four major employers on the south coast that rely on the line to move lumber, wood chips and hunks of steel. At a gathering Wednesday of politicians and industry officials in Eugene, the company, whose parent -- RailAmerica -- was bought earlier this year by a Florida hedge fund, estimated that $23 million in repairs are needed to reopen the line, and it wants four other public and private entities share in the cost. DeFazio said the plan was outrageous, summing it up as "a group of super-rich hedge fund managers who are trying to extort the Port of Coos Bay and the people of Oregon for a few million." Railroad company officials want a five-way partnership, with each stakeholder chipping in $4.66 million. It also wants $10 million in state subsidies over five years to defray the $1.5 million annually that the railroad says it loses on the line. The partners suggested by the company include itself, the Union Pacific railroad, the state Department of Transportation, the Oregon International Port of Coos Bay and the companies that ship their goods on the short line. DeFazio said a better option is to force the company to sell the line. With the company's assertion that the line loses $1.5 million a year, "we could make them pay us to take it," DeFazio said, or seize the line through eminent domain. An option discussed earlier was to fight the shutdown itself by challenging whether conditions are truly unsafe enough to warrant closure. But a Federal Railways Administration report released Thursday shows that the tunnels really are in bad shape, DeFazio said. Last month, federal inspectors were on the tracks and in the tunnels of a 120-mile short line between Eugene and Coquille to see whether the railroad made the right call in closing it. Railroad officials asserted that three of the line's nine tunnels posed a safety risk. In a news release, the FRA agreed, saying "all three tunnels need immediate repairs." ----- ©2007 The Oregonian
I had a feeling they'd come forth with these funding ideas. From the description of needed expenditures, they basically put little, if anything, into it. Ran the line into the ground. :no: Boxcab E50
I assure you that the old SP ran that line into the dirt long before Rail America started operating it! Why should a company be expected to keep a line open that looses 1.5 mil. a year and then maintain it to keep it open on top of the losses? I think the state and the shippers should "pony up" with the cash for repairs. If the line ends up getting the container port and Rail America gets the subsequent business/profit they should pay some of the costs back of repairing the line. If the state or another investor buys the line it will still have to be repaired! I'm sure that will cost the same or more,and it will come out of my pocket! :grumpy6ho:
As I understand this situation, the RR may have some legal obligations in this matter. That's why it should be kept open. Going back to those companies, who were immediately financially harmed by the shutdown, and essentially demanding they join in, is quite a slap in the shippers faces. It takes a lot of brass to come up with that idea. It flies in the face of reality, to guarantee a business is ensured profitability by it's customers. Next, the dollar loss figure needs scrutiny. Is it an actual dollar loss, or paper writeoff? Having some experience in these affairs, I can assure you there's usually a lot more beneath the surface, which the general public never sees! :tb-wacky: Boxcab E50
Yes, They have legal obligations.. But If I were an employee of the company, I would be concerned about my safety. I personally have seen the condition of physical plant and lack of traffic on this line and wonder about it's profitability. This is not just the railroad's problem, If the shippers and the state want the line to remain open. Well........ Opps! Almost got political.:tb-ooh:
The reason CORP may claim inadequate shipping, to sustain the line, may be entirely their own fault. I've even seen times, where a RR does all in it's powers, to drive away customers. (Overt. Covert. Or both.) We'd need to see internal paperwork, to know for certain exactly what really has transpired. Real. Or contrived for appearances. One RR, (not the subject of this topic), was a master of dumping branches. Either a suspicious bridge fire, at a key location. Which made rebuilding too costly. Or, another trick was to pour in money. New ties, ballast, and those associated costs. Tipping the books way out of line. Then running to the bureaucrats, looky, looky, it's a money pit, let us abandon. OK. Quickly salvaging the ties, scrapping the line, and actually making money on the deal. Plus the public facade good deed of rails to trails. Come out smelling like a rose, in several ways. :tb-wacky: Boxcab E50
Don't get me wrong, I think this line has potential to be profitable for Oregon and P&W. Coos Bay is a deepwater port and unlike Portland would not have to be dredged just to handle the small container ships. If the line is lost to a bunch of red tape and bickering, Oregon will loose a great transportation resource!
I agree. However, after years of hot air, this possibility needs to move forward. Now. Or forget it. Action speaks louder than words. This concept has been studied and discussed long enough. If any progress did occur, then CORP should be putting up a BIG chunk of change in this. As well as State, County, and the City. The RR needs to be a major player in the financial end of the project. In order to make money, you've got to spend money. Boxcab E50
