Several Southern Oregon and Northern California communities are working together to make a bid to purchase the Siskiyou rail line from Union Pacific Railroad.
The cities of Weed and Montague, California along with the City of Ashland have recently formed a railroad authority to buy 90 miles of track and right of way that runs from Ashland to Weed, California.
John Hammond is the Executive Director of the Siskiyou Regional Railroad Authority. He says the main goal of the group is to reopen the rail line to serve industrial users in southern Oregon and northern California.
The Siskiyou Regional Rail Authority has already applied for the third round of ConnectOregon funding for a 16 million dollar grant to purchase the line. One of the main sticking points to the application is that the grant money must be used only on Oregon related proposals, a majority of the proposed rail line to be purchased is located in northern California. Hammond says his group has provided additional details in the ConnectOregon application that will make it possible to use the grant for the complete purchase.
The grant request will not be decided upon until late August of next year.