This line has just been a hard luck story for a long time. (1) Passenger -- After US 101 was made four-lane for much of its route, the incentive for travelers to ride the train died away. (2) Freight -- The original idea was to carry logs from the forest, thus giving motorists the opportunity to drive without dodging log trucks. But logging has been disappearing in the area, and there is not enough other freight to support a 300-mile ROW. (3) Mother nature -- Every few years, along comes a big flood and washes away a stretch of track. Years ago, I wrote "Trains" observing that the lumber companies, by clearcutting the forest, assured the floods that washed out the trains on which they relied to ship out their lumber. Some professor of forestry wrote in to correct me, assuring readers that clearcutting had nothing to do with floods.

Anyway, it may be necessary to mothball the ROW and wait for better economic times. I agree that once you give it to the rails-to-trails people, you never get it back.