STB Ruling

The Port of Coos Bay will be granted more time to inspect the CORP rail line to the coast.
Yesterday afternoon the Surface Transportation Board ordered the Central Oregon & Pacific Railroad to give the Port of Coos Bay complete access to the line.
The Port complained to the STB on August 29th that they were only allowed 3 days to inspect the line and not allowed access into any of the troubled tunnels.
The Port asked the STB for an additional 5 days to inspect bridges and tunnels to further aid them in determining the Net Liquidated Value .
The STB granted the Port 5 more consecutive business days to conduct inspections and finish those inspections by September 18th.
The Port will also be allowed to amend its rebuttal after the rail inspection.
In a related matter the Port is ready to file with the STB an operational plan that shows that it can run and maintain the entire line. The operational plan includes running trains to interchange directly with Union Pacific in Eugene, Oregon. Missing from the plan is the operation from the Coos Bay Switch yard to the Roseburg Forest Products plant in Coquille, Oregon. That 17 mile segment may be operated by an outside apointed rail company. (Portland & Western, RailServe, Yreka Western or Dan Lovelady.) The only hang up is that there is only one shipper, RFP and they propose only moving up to 5 cars per day Monday thru Friday.
The STB is expected to rule on the Ports filing of the Feeder Line Application before the end of September.