The counties involved were required to form the rail authority by the state, otherwise the state was going to withdraw track rehab. funding. It's hard to believe that rebuilding the burned bridge isn't a shovel ready project, since the bridge was on cement pads (no piles need to be driven into the river, just reuse the original pads), all they need to do is get the plans for the old bridge and rebuild it in steel---price of steel is down a bit, it would nice to see them getting something going on this, build some traffic to justify the need for the Oakesdale-Thornton thing. As for Moscow, Watco has removed all the crossing signals and for the low traffic levels, crossbucks would do nicely, and a friend I know that works at Crites says they would like to load if Watco's huge surcharge on the track from the State Line to downtown Moscow was lifted. (Propane would likely return too under those conditions.) The main track from Best Western Hotel to the Subaru Dealer (which is 85% of the track in question) is all newly relaid so track condition really isn't too big an issue. Sad to see the old P&L turned into a trail, but at least it keeps the ROW around, even if it isn't rail banked.
And you thought I couldn't comment on all the issues in the original post!!