Re: New rail proposal in North Idaho? new business
Author: SSS
Date: 01-17-2013 - 01:18
Hunt and other containers from Lewiston to Spokane would be added to trains in Spokane for continued haul. If the P&L were still in tact, it could be added to an existing train and would more than justify the haul. If the IDOT and WSDOT had not spread so much misinformation about the damage to the line during the 1996 flood the line would likely exist today. But political pressure by a certain trucking company with green tractors based in St. Maries wanted the road between Kendrick and Arrow improved so their trucks could go faster and they won out. Today there could be significant traffic over the lower P&L running grain from the Palouse area to snake river ports, and the proposed talc export facility in Lewiston would likely have been built and those trains were planned to run via the P&L as well. Eastbound container traffic out of the Port of Lewiston would be a pretty significant part of the P&L today if it were in service. And the Port of Lewiston would be a stronger port if it had better eastbound rail connections. But, as stated in the newspaper story mentioned here, trail people won't give up their trail, even though the preservation of the right of way for future rail use was the justification for the trail in the first place. I don't believe this is a rail banked rails to trails right of way, I believe the original abandonment took place before the rails to trails act was put in place, even though the actual track removal took place well after the act.