POTB severely damaged

Understandable thinking. I was just stating the obvious again. As much as I would love to see it stay and be part of the area, it is looking grim for this wonderful line. As a POTB employee I can say that every day was a struggle getting cars up and over the 3% grade into the valley. It was also a struggle to do it within 12 hours of service. I really enjoyed my time there and wish it to come back. I can remember some good times where we would be going along and a huge Bald Eagle would pace the train looking for fish in the Salmonberry or other mornings when it’s pouring down rain and we can’t grip the rail even though we are caking them with sand so we would have to cut the train into two just to get it to the top. I had plenty of great memories I will carry with me the rest of my life. But back to the problem at hand; with the line leaving so would the lumber companies, even if the state was to build a 4 lane hwy. The lumber companies are not worried about traffic on "the Wilson" Hwy 6. They are worried about the cost of shipping by truck. I was reading someplace that one of the shippers would have to pay around $360,000 a year more to ship by truck. That industry was one of the smaller shippers on the line. I couldn’t imagine the cost for Hampton Lumber who ships over 1200 car loads of lumber a year. All I can say is the state better get the money or Tillamook County will be reduced to cheese.






Dan Larsen

 

Hopefully the line will be repaired. Even though there is no passenger service I had the opportunity to ride a NRHS trip in September 2K+5. A beautiful area and no other way to see it except by train. Some of the trestles are really tall too.

 

gotta love the media in this country. While it's better than anywhere else in the world, it still reeks. Largely, for the most part, because the press tends to side with the nay-sayers. It's as though they have a mind set that says "the only ones who have done their research are the people against something", when a little research on their own would show just the opposite.

Morons

both the press and the "anti-everything" crowd.

Last I heard, plains highway - that is, on flat ground, no over/underpasses, no bridges, etc, 2-lane, cost about 1.5 million per mile to build. Construction over crappy terrain (beautiful to look at, hell to build in) can jack that price 10 times. Widening an existing 2-lane in that area is (aside from insane) essentially new construction. Nothing else will support the load of traffic needed to safely replace rail service. The shortest route I find on Mapquest between Tillamook Bay and Portland is (round numbers) 80 miles - and almost all of it is... not flat.

So.. these wags would have us (as taxpayers, mind you) pay 500 million (Yes, I'm being REALLY generous here) for a highway to carry the load that a 20 million dollar repair job would handle? Let us not forget that maintenance of said highway doesn't spring forth from the aether like the gods from Zeus's forehead, too. With the kind of traffic load that highway would see, maintenance costs would likely triple. Can you say "tax hike"? I knew you could. Can you say "Taxed out of business"? of course you can.

You can bet proponents of the highway alternative fall into one (or more) of 3 categories:

1) Don't live near the highways in question
2) Breathe methane on a regular basis
3) Are teamsters

Well, there's a fourth, but "too stupid to be allowed to contribute to the gene pool" is rather obvious.

It's been my experience that FEMA actually has their act together when it comes to the immediate aftermath of a disaster.. though Homeland Security does its level best to screw that up. I don't have any experience dealing with FEMA after the fact, when rebuilding, so I can't legitimately offer a comment. Just my best wishes.

On a more personal note - my wife and I are planning on moving to the area in a few years. I'd be just as happy if the highways were gone and the only access was by rail. I hope to [pick your favorite power here] the POTB is still around.. I don't consider myself a foamer, but I do froth at the mouth occasionally

 

Your Mapquest is correct. Basically, Highway 26 heading west from Portland is four lanes plus the whole way until around Banks, and then 6 splits off to Tillamook there, and this highway is 2 lanes, and it is ALSO in constant need of stabilization/reconstruction/rebuilding/etc. It is taken care of because it is part of the infrastructure. I would argue that the rail line is also infrastructure, and that it would be penny-wise but pound-foolish to try and use the "savings" resulting from not fixing the rail line to "expand" highway capacity. It won't be anywhere close to enough, as that road goes over terrain as rough as the railroad and it would need a lot of additional construction and engineering since none of the bridges or tunnels is set up for four lanes and there are many narrow passes and narrow cut-and-fill sections that would need to be expanded.

 

Here's an editorial from the Oregonian. I will weigh in with my own comments in a future post:

Punk, Rotten Nasty - OregonLive.com

Punk, Rotten & Nasty

The old Pacific Railway & Navigation line should receive a final gift from Oregon: Death with dignity
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
W e can think of scores of reasons to save the Tillamook Bay Railroad. Economic ones. Environmental ones. Even a bowl full of sentimental ones. We can also think of 26 million reasons not to.
Early last month, heavy rain caused massive damage to the historic railroad that ribbons through the Coast Range from Tillamook to Banks, near Hillsboro. Early estimates suggest it could cost more than $26 million to get the line, owned by the state, back in working order. We're still, by the way, paying off the huge debt from the last time this happened, in the big flood of 1996. And those repairs hurt more than the pocketbook; they caused a big brouhaha when they threatened the prized steelhead run in the pristine Salmonberry River.
The track once served as a key transportation corridor for Tillamook, Garibaldi, Rockaway Beach and Wheeler, towns -- like so many Oregon coastal communities -- that long suffered the consequences of economic isolation. Opened in 1911 to haul "green gold" from coastal forests, the Pacific Railway & Navigation Co. line was dubbed "Punk, Rotten & Nasty" for its astonishing hand-carved route through rugged territory. Abandoned by Southern Pacific in 1990, it was saved from salvage when the Port of Tillamook used almost $2 million in state lottery dollars to buy it. It's been a money pit ever since.
There's a stirring railroad romance to the line, with its series of high trestles and tunnels punching through the heart of the Tillamook Forest. But romance doesn't pay overhead. Traffic has dwindled to about 10 railcars per day. They bring in grain to feed the dairy cows of Tillamook County and ferry out finished lumber from Tillamook mills. Steve Zika, president and CEO of the Hampton Affiliates mill in Tillamook, was reassuring last week: "Whatever the future of the railroad, that mill will survive." He's already trucking his products to a Portland railhead.
Gov. Ted Kulongoski has convened a task force to study the railroad's future. It will meet for the first time Friday. Bob Van Borssum, director of the Port of Tillamook Bay, current operator of the railroad, says he's willing to look at "any and all alternatives" to restore service to his customers. The Federal Emergency Management Agency might pay for 75 percent of the repairs; Oregon would have to raise the balance. The governor wants a recommendation by the end of February. He can have ours today.
Just as trees have economic value beyond their timber, as watersheds, as wildlife habitat, as succors for the soul, so abandoned rail grades have value as multiuse trails. We're a long way from endorsing the idea of spending state money on a hiking trail through the Tillamook Forest. But we can't help but notice that this corridor links directly into the innovative Banks/Vernonia trail, Oregon's first linear state park. The vision of an easy walking trail from the Portland area to the coast, through one of Oregon's wildest corners, is a compelling one. If the cost could prove moderate, it might just provide a new kind of economic lifeline to the north Oregon coast.

 

Notice that there is no mention of any of the costs associated with NOT fixing the rail line, including the demand on the highways through increased truck traffic. Also, to convert that whole line into a trail would still necessitate some slide removal, some repairs, and ongoing maintenance. While I would love to see a trail through the Tillamook Forest, I don't think it is time to do that here. It would be a different story if the line were truly abandoned, but it is not.

The Oregonian's level of research is reflected in this editorial. That paper has become so bad that I don't receive it anymore. I would rather not go through all the trouble to go outside and pick up that stack of ads and "human interest" drivel, read the ten minutes of stuff that might be marginally well-written (and most of that would be from either the AP, the New York Times, or the LA Times) and then go to the trouble to toss it in the recycling bin.

 

Too bad OregonLive doesn't offer a comments section.

That article is so poorly research it's laughable.

 

Don't you love how they crow about the projected price tag for repairing the line but then talk about conversion to a trail as if that is free. I love trails and we have some great ones around here, but I think trails ought to be the last option before a R-O-W is sold off after abandonment, and not the first reaction when there are some landslides and other difficulties.

I would love to see a projection of highway building and maintenance cost increases with all the extra trucking versus the cost of rebuilding the line. I think I know which would come in the lower cost option.

Adam

 

To be fair, I should mention that it is an editorial, but still, what am I supposed to think of a paper that doesn't even do some basic research before jumping to conclusions in an editorial.

There may not be a comments section here, but the Oregonian does print letters to the editor... at a rate, I think, of about 1 out of 10 for space reasons. Maybe we should all email them a letter to the editor.

Adam

 

Here's their letters to the editor policy and contact information. If you want to greatly increase your chances of getting in the print edition, I have found that sticking to the issues and refraining from attacks on the paper and journalism in general is a better tactic than calling them a bunch of idiots.

Here it is:

GUIDELINES FOR "LETTERS TO THE EDITOR"
We invite your letters to the editor. Send them to: Letters to the editor, The Oregonian, 1320 S.W. Broadway, Portland, Or., 97201, or letters@news.oregonian.com via electronic mail. They may also be faxed to (503)294-4193.
Please limit letters to 150 words. Please include your full address and daytime phone number, for verification only. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.

 

I know it's an Editorial, but it's the official editorial stance of the paper, not some blowhard. They need to do a better job then that.

 

A substantial amount of time and money was expended clearing and repairing several roads and highways. I don't think anyone would argue that that was money wasted, but when it's a railroad right-of-way the rules seem to be different. I don't know why that is.

I would be in support of the trail proposal if and only if POTB had decided to bunch it and abandoned the line, ripped up the rails, and if the alternative was to lose the right-of-way. I think it's premature to jump to that conclusion right now.

Regarding Oregonian editorials, they are usually pretty crafty in their exclusion of certain facts and their sweeping conclusions. You can catch it if you read between the lines and don't readily accept their premises.

Adam

 

It's the Oregonian, or as Lars Larsen calls it, the "daily fish wrapper." :tb-biggrin: