STB Hearing & CORP Oregon Senators Ron Wyden and Gordon Smithand Congressman Peter DeFazio say the company that owns the embargoed rail line between Eugene and CoosBay has shirked its duties and urged federal regulatorsto increase their oversight of carriers. The three testified before the Surface TransportationBoard yesterday in WashingtonD.C. So did Roseburg Forest Products President Allyn Ford, who also represents shippers along the line. All complained about the problems that the shippers has faced sinceCentral Oregon & Pacific Railroad abruptly closed the line last September. The shutdown hurt businesses that had to scramble to find alternate means of getting their goods to market. Senator Smith says the railroad has to 'step up and meet its responsibility or be held accountable by the STB'. The railroad cited safety reasons in closing the line last fall. It has offered to reopen the line only if the state provides asubsidy. This morning, CORP’s parent company RailAmerica is giving its side of the story to the Surface Transportation Board.
RailAmerica/CORP will just feed a pack of lies to the officials investigating the situation. RailAmerica is not interested in upgrading and providing service. They just run the line until it cannot be used then sell off the rail for scrap.
Before you go off "feed a pack of lies" of your own, why don't you try providing facts to back up your assertion? I can state a prime case where RailAmerica proved it was interested in upgrading and providing service at a large cost to itself- the AGR. When they bought it, it was a piece of trash. 5 MPH over most of it, all light jointed rail. Now it's all 45 MPH Class III CWR, mostly at RA's expense. The fall-off in lumber business has really hurt the AGR, but it's a cyclic industry and it'll rebound and then they'll be making money again. DGNO has upgraded several lines over the years, including rehabilitation of track with newer rail and complete rebuilding of several segments about 5 years ago. Yes, the State of Texas paid for much of the work, but it was done to ensure continued service and reduce maintenance costs for the railroad by giving us better track to work with thus making it less intensive to maintain. NECR just completed the lowering and rebuilding of several tunnels and approaches on its line to accomodate double stack intermodal trains. If there's going to be a reasonable chance that they'll get most of the investment back for whomever is providing the funds, then RA will do the upgrades, just like every other railroad. But if there's no chance of making back the money, then why should they do charity work when other railroads aren't?
If RailAmerica/CORP IS interested in upgrading and providing service, then why haven't they done so? Why have they incurred the wrath of the STB if their goals are simply to run the business effectively? There's a "game" going on here just as their often is in the corporate world. They may not be simply trying to scrap the line, but they sure didn't do everything they could to run trains and make money either. Simply Violating the STB rules is probably costing them money in legal fees as is pissing off the towns they aren't serving. They should have just Offered to fix the tunnels on their own dime and began negotiations there.
States should eliminate the middleman and just own the railroads if they have to pay for upgrading them anyways. They would be as much an asset as the highway system and could save taxpayers a ton of money in the long run.....dave
RailAmerica Vice President Paul Lundberg told the Surface Transportation Board that the company made a sincere effort to enter into a public private partnership with the stakeholders of the Coos Bay spur line and they were ‘surprised’ by the negative reaction. Lundberg said each of the stakeholders had a vested interest in the line and Rail America was trying to repair and reopen the line amid what Lundberg called ‘extraordinary circumstances’ once they learned the tunnels on the line were in danger of failing. Lundberg’s testimony came on Friday, a day after Oregon representatives described the impact the embargo of the Coos Bay line has had on local companies and jobs. STB Chair Chip Nottingham told Lundberg that Rail America should realize that the time for a public private partnership might have been when they bought the line, not after closing it and then asking for help. He said Rail America is testing their patience. Board member W. Douglas Buttrey told Lundberg Rail America was ‘extraordinarily lucky’ they are not dealing with the death of employees from a failed tunnel and a criminal negligence case in court. Lundberg insists RailAmerica hired a professional engineering firm to inspect the tunnels as soon as they purchased CORP. It took a year for the report to come out and they closed the line immediately. According to Lundberg, Rail America still has ideas about ways to reopen the line. Officials with the line have been given until May 12th to explain why the embargo – now seven months old – is not an illegal abandonment.
Whooooeeeeee! Sounds like the STB has RailAmerica's feet to the fire ... and I can smell pork burning!
A year to determine if tunnels are safe? Kinda slow on the draw, ain't they? Lessee......get a slow survey, put operating crews at risk of a tunnel collapse, then express surprise at the report & close the line. Hey, makes sense to me........... Now that we know the tunnels are not too safe, how's about we stop the p*ssing contest, get stuff repaired, & get back to running a railroad? Or would it not be cost-effective, given the current condition of the shippers? I understand profit & loss, and making enough money to justify running a railroad & all that, but this stinks like week-old dead fish.
I know for absolute fact that the AGR runs trains off the rails all the time due to RA's desire to not pay for upgrades or maintaince.
It's an absolute fact huh? Funny, because to date this year, AGR has had 3 derails caused by track conditions. They've had an additional 5 due to human factors or mechanical defect of the cars/engines (stiff bolster on one, bad coupler on another, etc), including one caused by an NS crew operating on trackage rights over AGR track. Last year, AGR had 15 derailments due to track issues, of which 4 were FRA reportable. In fact most were extremely minor (like one car falling off the track) and nothing that you wouldn't find on most Class I branchlines in a year. Again, before you go out stating fact, have facts to back them up. If you had any idea how often the Class Is derail around Dallas alone, you'd be complaining about their track conditions as they're worse than the shortlines are in more places than they're willing to admit.
All the resources around Coos Bay make a railroad a great investment in a time of rising fuel costs. The problem is letting these investment companies buy them to milk for whatever they can take then bail out. The lines need to be developed by someone who cares ( the public or local companies). This is an area where government should provide some positive input by stepping in and protecting the public interest. These companies that will buy a line and scrap it out for the parts are the same type who bought companies and raided the pension funds, they will shamelessly take whatever they think they can get away with. The public interest is something they don't relate to.
CAPFlyer has it right ! All railroads whether big or small, union or non-union, rich or poor, derail or "go on the ground" countless times a day. That is a fact. The rails are only 4'-8 1/2" apart any variance of that measurement allows the wheels to go off the rails. Now that we have that understood a derailment can be caused by a number of things including but not limited to lack of maintainence. Having looked over the territory of the RA lines in question with the huge amount of tunnels, bridges, grades and curves is it any wonder any company would want to operate a railroad with these conditions? All I would say is that the revenue must be awfully goo to overcome expected expenses. If it were my railroad, and there was no help coming forth to help rebuild ( state/shipper support) it, I would unfortunately apply for abandonment or let someone else try it. The way RA handled the embargo is not the way I would have handled it, but I certainly would not endanger crews once an out of service main track situation occurred. I would stop operations in a heartbeat. There are some lines, which unless they receive help from outside sources especially when it comes to tunnels and bridges are probably going to cease operations if the revenue is not there to cover the expenses. With most Class1 carriers going to a minimum of 286,000-315,000# track limits many short lines will need to upgrade to survive or go out of business. Let's face it, some of us here are on the side of the STB to force a company to take action against the principles of capitalism and make the trains run so that everyone including railfans are happy. But when this occurs the company loses money and eventually goes out of business. Then there are others of us who, while enjoying the railroad as a hobby also work for and understand some of the reasons for negative operating decisions that companies need to make in order to survive. In the end most of us wish we can/could save many lines and have repeatedly gone door to door asking customers to try the railroad to help them save fuel and dollars. However, most shippers then point out the door at their semis and say no thanks i will stay with truck. Is it any wonder why short line management at the end of the day often ask themselves "why would anyone want to be in this business" ? Unless you have been in the business and faced the obstacles all railroads face daily you really are only speculating at what really goes on. CAPFlyer keep up the good work explaining in detail railroad management, in order to clarify sometimes " rosey thoughts about life on the rails." Barry
IIRC, RA started up this line well before Fortress bought into the shortline conglomerate. Also, lest we forget, A&K Railroad Materials has pulled the stunt of purchasing a line under the pretense of operating it as a shortline, running a few token trains, saying "Ooops, we can't make money", and ripping it up. Had it not been for the Federal government calling them on it, they would have continued to buy lines merely for the rail & tie salvage cost. Last I heard of this company, they got the contract to take up the rails on the former UP Encampment Branch, which had ZERO shippers thanks to a bad timber market and the closing of the sole customer in Saratoga. Inasmuch as I don't care for how RA handled this particular scenario, I would rather this line get repaired & back in service, whether it is run by RA, Genessee & Wyoming (PNWR runs to Eugene from Albany), or another operator. With the impending closure of its Siskyou line, sounds like CORP doesn't have much left to operate. I'm a railfan, but I realize railroads aren't in business to give us pretty choochoos to look at- they're in business to provide the service of transportation of goods from Point A to Point B. I'm not privy to RA's policies, nor am I an RA employee, so I don't speak for that company. All we can do is speculate- an oh boy, are some of the speculations pretty strong!
Here's my thought ... (not an accusation): There is talk of developing a deep water port at Coos Bay. IF this comes to be, there will be an enormous increase of freight revenue for the railroad by moving double-stack containers to and from the port. Of course, the tunnels on the line will not allow double-stack container cars due to low clearances. Hence, deem the tunnels as unsafe and close the entire line due to "unsafe conditions." Now, here's what I feel in my gut: Hold the shippers of the Coos Bay line 'hostage' by denying service and offer to re-establish service if the shippers and the State of Oregon will take the lions' share of the expense of bringing the tunnels back to a 'safe condition'. It would be quite convenient for the railroad if the shippers and the state agreed to the demands, and wouldn't it be a coincidence the tunnels would have to be made either higher, or lower the floors to accomplish making them safe? See my point?? Kinda like the Dire Staights song lyrics: "Money for nothing and the chicks are free!"
Time is Running Out For CORP on STB Filing Time is running out for RailAmerica and Central Oregon & Pacific Railroad answer to the Surface Transportation Board. The STB gave the railroad 30 days to show cause why the Board should not consider CORP’s ongoing failure to provide service on the Coos Bay Rail Line. The deadline for RailAmerica and CORP’s answer is this Monday, May 12th. The board is also seeking an answer from CORP why they should not be required to either promptly repair the tunnels on the line and resume rail service or to seek abandonment on the Coos Bay branch line. The Coos Bay Branch line was closed suddenly after the railroad imposed an Embargo on September 21st last year. CORP has asked all of the shippers and stakeholders and the State of Oregon for 4.66 Million dollars each for a total of 23 Million Dollars to restore the rail line to service. So far none of the stakeholders have agreed to the proposal. The STB says that all of the entities served with the railroads May 12the response will have 10 days to address the Board after the filing. RailAmerica & CORP is required to provide a copy of their response to the Port of Coos Bay, all of the shippers on the Coos Bay Rail line including Roseburg Forest Products, American Bridge Company and Union Pacific Railroad.
Corp? "CORP has asked all of the shippers and stakeholders and the State of Oregon for 4.66 Million dollars each for a total of 23 Million Dollars to restore the rail line to service." Isn't a Railroad company supposed to pay for the it's own maintenance? If everyone else has to pay then why do they need the company? How much did these guys pay for the coos bay branch anyway? Maybe it would be better for the govt. to use eminent domain and take it over for the public good?
