Wait a minute! Rehab the Colfax-Pullman segment AND rebuild the Thornton-Oaksdale line? I thought it was either one or the other, and the conventional wisdom was that the Colfax-Pullman segment was too expensive to rebuild the burned trestle and rehab all those other trestles, and the "gosh wouldn't that segment make a nice bike path" sentiment abounding. That and the 3% westward out of Colfax, and the wish of the WSDOT to eliminate the at-grade crossings in Colfax on 195 and Pullman on Grand Avenue.

Although the Thornton-Oaksdale rebuild would cost more, it does have a certain understated logic to it by comparison - there is a ready made overpass that carries 195 over the old grade east of town, there is more rail adjacent elevator capacity in the Oaksdale/Garfield/Spangle vicinity than will soon be out of Moscow/Pullman/Colfax vicinity (the last elevator in Moscow stopped shipping months ago), the westbound grades for a loaded grain train out of Oaksdale via Thornton would be less than those via Colfax and may be lesser than the up and down grades of the ex-P&L. I do think the rails and the few trestles out of Thornton running west would need upgrading.

I don't think the WAWG would complain too much if the Oaksdale-Thornton line is rebuilt and the Pullman-Colfax segment is abandoned to recreational use.