h Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> There exists a plan to greatly shorten a
> Fallon-Pasco route (the Fallon deal itself is
> curious at best right now)--and another that
> involves a potential doubling of capacity at a
> certain branch terminus that has existing viable
> service.

Are you talking about that plan to rebuild the Thornton to Oaksdale line? Certainly that would shorten the distance from Fallon to Wallula, but would UP be willing to engage a car haul agreement with BNSF for Fallon grain hauled via Hooper Junction(since Fallon is contractually obligated to use BNSF)?

The other rumor I heard was that WSDOT wants to truncate the Colfax branch at Mockonema to eliminate that 3% grade down into Colfax proper. To do this they want Colfax to annex Mockonema and the county fairgrounds into a new port district, then pay the remaining live accounts down in Colfax to relocate to new facilities to be built at Mockonema. From what I've seen, that means one small grain elevator and one warehouse. Are there any other rail accounts left down in Colfax?

Then they'll rip up the rails and turn the Colfax to Mockonema ROW into a bike path so folks can ride their bikes to the fairgrounds. I would also think that they'd want to build a "Y" or a loop track at Mockonema, but that might be considered an extravagance.