NCRA cash cow proves finite
By Mike A'Dair/TWN Staff Writer
Article Launched: 07/18/2007 12:02:12 PM PDT

The North Coast Railroad Authority, which has labored for the past decade to secure nearly $60 million in federal and state monies to rehabilitate North Coast rail service, admitted this week available funding will likely not be enough to open the line all the way to Willits.

NCRA Executive Director Mitch Stogner said after fixing rail crossings along the entire line and repairing structures and roadbed conditions along the portion of the line from Lombard to Windsor, NCRA would have "almost nothing left" to repair the line from Windsor to Willits.

According to Stogner, in April 2006 the California Transportation Commission gave the NCRA some $650,000 to do the environmental clearance and preliminary engineering to initiate repairs on the southern portion of the line, damaged by storms in January 2006.

In October 2006 the CTC gave the NCRA $1.5 million to actually undertake the repairs, and in March 2007 the CTC released another $1.5 million to repair the first seven rail crossings along that portion of the line. In April 2007, it released another $7.5 million so the rail authority could begin work on all 54 crossings along the entire length of the line.

Late this month, NCRA will attend a CTC meeting in Glendale at which it expects to receive $13.5 million to initiate repairs to the actual structures and roadbed along the southern portion of the line. According to Stogner, those funds should be sufficient to bring the line up to operating ability from Lombard to Windsor, a distance of about 65 miles.
According to Stogner, assuming the CTC does give the rail authority the $13.5 million, that would leave about $4 million for preliminary engineering to open the rail line through the Eel River Canyon, a couple million for emergency repairs, and "only a couple million left to go from Windsor to Willits."

Stogner noted the rail authority has spent about $2.9 million to comply with the terms stemming from a 1998 lawsuit brought against the rail line by then-California Attorney General Dan Lungren. Another $18 million of the $60 million had been consumed by the rail authority during the 1996-2006 period, he said.