Roseburg rail yard project in jeopardy after line closure



JOHN SOWELL, jsowell@newsreview.info
November 16, 2007


Oregon Department of Transportation officials said Thursday they might consider canceling funding for a new $7.7 million rail yard north of Roseburg following the closing of a spur line between Coos Bay and Eugene.

Stuart Foster, a Medford resident who chairs the Oregon Transportation Commission, said the state would continue the hold placed on funds for the rail yard being constructed by the Central Oregon & Pacific Railroad just west of Interstate 5.

“We’re going to freeze those funds until we can work a resolution to this thing. Right now, I’m thinking a resolution is not CORP,” Foster said. “We want to have that rail yard built, don’t get me wrong. But, on the other hand, we’re not going to give CORP the money to build that rail yard when they treat 300 customers like trash.”

The railroad closed the spur line without warning in September, after citing safety concerns. Foster said the company didn’t bother to notify Roseburg Forest Products, its largest customer, of the closure. Foster called officials from RFP and other companies after he was notified of the shutdown.

Railroad officials could not be reached for comment Thursday afternoon. Phone lines at the CORP’s Roseburg headquarters gave a busy signal over a several-hour period.

The topic came up during two days of Transportation Commission meetings in Douglas County. The panel met Thursday in Roseburg and on Wednesday in Canyonville.

Ray Jones, vice president of resources for Roseburg Forest Products, addressed the commission during a public comment portion of Wednesday’s meeting. He confirmed that the company was given no advance notice of the closure and that it left his company and others scrambling to find alternate means of transportation.

The shutdown of the line has increased by 150 per day the number of trucks using Highway 101 on the coast. That has increased concerns about traffic congestion, he said.

Jones said 21 companies that shipped goods along the Coos Bay spur line and along the Siskiyou line from southern Oregon into northern California have formed a coalition to discuss their options and try to improve the situation.

“It’s unbelievable that an organization (whose) revenues are based upon business with its customers is not customer-oriented,” Foster said during Wednesday’s meeting.

The Central Oregon & Pacific Railroad was awarded the $7.7 million grant to build the rail yard through the Connect Oregon program to improve service and cut down on rail congestion in Roseburg. The new switching yard would allow the railroad to trim the length of its trains from 80 to 120 cars long — that can stretch out for more than a mile — to shorter trains pulling 30 to 60 cars at a time.

By doing so, the railroad hoped to cut the wait time at crossings from up to 25 minutes down to less than five minutes. It would also move the biggest daily delays at 8 a.m. and noon — which can idle hundreds of cars at a time in downtown Roseburg and along Garden Valley Boulevard and Stewart Parkway — to the middle of the night.

ODOT Director Matthew Garrett said his department would explore all options before canceling the Connect Oregon funding for the rail yard project.

“I want to keep everything on the table. I want to exhaust all avenues to see where we need to go,” Garrett said.

Garrett said he was disappointed that railroad officials didn’t seek assistance before deciding to shut down the line. The railroad received an analysis in July saying the tracks needed major repairs, yet rail officials never contacted anyone to discuss the matter.

“It’s the attitude, it’s the level of engagement, the disposition is just wrong here. It doesn’t feel like a partnering,” Garrett said.

In a separate meeting Wednesday in Eugene, officials from CORP’s parent company, RailAmerica — bought earlier this year by a Boca Raton, Fla., hedge fund — said it would cost $23 million in repairs to reopen the line. They asked for four public and private entities to share in the cost.

The company says it is willing to put up $4.66 million but wants the other entities to pay an equal share. It also wants $10 million in state subsidies over five years to cover the $1.5 million in annual losses it says it loses operating the line.

Instead, U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio said Thursday that ODOT should save the $7.7 million from the Roseburg rail yard project and use it to buy the company. During a telephone interview from his office in Washington, D.C., DeFazio said he spoke with Gov. Ted Kulongoski earlier in the day and urged him to have either the state or the Port of Coos Bay apply to the federal government to take over ownership of the line.

“These billionaire investors have no interest in providing rail service in southern Oregon,” DeFazio said.

He accused the company of trying to get others to pay for upkeep it should have done before now in order to bide its time waiting to see if a container facility is built in Coos Bay that would make the spur line much more lucrative.

The container facility, which international shipping giant Maersk is considering, would provide 1,214 jobs at startup, port officials told the Transportation Commission. Ninety percent of the cargo would be shipped by rail to other locations in the West and Midwest. The remainder would go by rail or truck along the Interstate 5 corridor, said Martin Callery, foreign trade zone coordinator for the Port of Coos Bay.

With state or port ownership of the line, either public entity could contract with another rail line to operate it, DeFazio said.

“Even if Maersk didn’t come, we would be providing an essential public service,” DeFazio said. “Since (CORP) says they’re losing money, then we should be able to get them to pay us to take it over.”



• You can reach reporter John Sowell at 957-4209 or by e-mail at jsowell@newsreview.info.

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