They don't own it--same with the W&I operating the P&L. The State has only contracted with them as operators. The shortline's only responsibility is to maintain it so that it can be operated (by themselves) at FRA Class I standards. When the local FRA inspector writes them up, they get to fix it. Both railroads employ a full time Roadmaster at their expense to do inspections and routine maintenance. Both companies have train crews that can double as maintenance people to fix minor problems that come up and on-call people who can assist. Both lines, plus the ex-UP PV/Hooper lines, suffer from years of deferred maintenance by their former Class I owners. There is NO company who was willing to keep the lines going without the State's assistance.

The CW line will see much increased business this year because the co-ops at Davenport and Reardan are entering the shuttle train game to Ritzville. The P&L is about to get into the game big-time as well, once a certain co-op gets things all lines up.

The State would love to have their lines operating at Class 2 standards, but that's going to take time and shipper commitment (loyalty). The $$ will come from that commitment. Each line is getting roughly $600,000 in re-hab maintenance this year as a first step. That's a total of $1.8 million over almost 300 track miles. It is estimated that one single road route suffered many millions of dollars in surface damage during the year that Watco embargoed the CW line and the trucks hauled the loads from the west end of the line to the railhead and/or the barge docks. As taxpayers, I guess we take our choice. I would rather get the trucks off of the roads.