Uncle Benson Wrote:
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> Let's see, 12,000 trucks added to the road (at
> current business levels) per year.

According to some other knowledgable sources, the POTB handles roughly 3,000-5,000 cars a year (remember that each car that comes on-line has to go off-line too, so that's about 1,500-2,500 cars inbound, and an equal amount outbound.)

There is no way that the POTB's track structure can support a fully loaded center-partition car, so figure each railcar is equivalent to no more than two trucks.

That is between 6,000 and 10,000 trucks that'll be added onto Highway 6. On a daily basis, that's between 16 and 28 additional trucks (in both directions - between 8 and 14 trucks per direction) on Highway 6.

That's a drop in the bucket of Highway 6 traffic.

Further, Highway 6 is the highway that Tillamook County residents use, tourists use, and the vast majority of freight uses - the TCCA isn't going to ship out reefers of Medium Cheddar Cheese knowing it'll take three days just to get to Portland - it goes by truck, and those trucks are already on Highway 6.

As much as I want to see the POTB survive, the reality is that it's becoming a very expensive railroad to maintain, and while those will complain that it'll jack up prices - as Mike Root mentioned - the freight can easily be sent to Banks or Portland where it can be transloaded onto railcars for the rest of the journey if necessary. Hampton and Weyerhauser both operate distribution centers in the Portland area with rail access; Stimson has an existing mill in Forest Grove that could handle transloading for their Tillamook mill. The TCCA receives only a few cars a month; what's another nickel to the cost of a baby loaf of cheese? (Already, Tillamook Cheese sells at a premium over most brands so a nickel isn't much.)

The Salmonberry River Canyon trackage can be allowed to return to nature. The Cochran-Banks segment can be added to the Banks-Vernonia State Park trail. The Wheeler-Tillamook segment can remain to the best of its ability due to the tourist train operation that exists.