In Reality NO STATE should be in the shortline business!!! States get in the business only as a last ditch effort to retain rail service to a particular location or region. Nobody in state government has a clue as to how to run a shortline let alone run one profitably.

What you see here is a desperate government body trying to be "all things to all people" without a clue as to what the big picture is.

To "toot my own horn" so to speak; shortline railroading is kinda like making apple cider; once you squeeze the apples you then do it over and over until there is nothing left; in the shortline business you buy the most fuel/maintenance efficient unit (usually a worn out switcher) you can get and try to keep it running to produce revenue. You probably have a bunch of light rail inherited from the Class I. In order to upgrade your track in order to stay in business you go out and find unused industry tracks, buy them from the owner, take them up and salvage the good rail. Sell the unuseable stuff for scrap in order to buy spikes and bolts. Grade the ties into garbage, landscape and relay. Use the relay; sell the landscapers in order to buy ballast. PAY to send the garbage to a landfill.

In conclusion, shortline railroading is a sort of art form; State bureaucrats can only put up the money to save the infrastructure and HOPEFULLY find an operator to put the assets to use at minimal cost to the state. If the state didn't pay too much up front, maybe they can scrap it when it fails at a profit, justify their jobs and save their asses in the process!!!

"Shortline Sammie" Dick Samuels, Owner Oregon Pacific Railroad, Portland, OR