Shippers along a now dormant rail line in North Idaho, known as the Grangeville branch, have requested that Idaho lawmakers raise load limits for trucks between Grangeville, Id and Lewiston, Id to 120,000 GVW as regulators have in Southern Idaho. Shippers claim that long awaited plans to reopen the branch as far as Cottonwood are not going to happen and that it would be much more cost effective for them to ship to the Lewiston ports if the weight limits were raised. Although BG&CM railway, owner of the line, claims they will be reopening the line in the near future, shippers say they have been hearing that for several years and unless the trains show up soon they are going to have to do something to make trucking more cost effective and increasing weight limits would reduce the number of truck trips and the number of drivers needed to haul the grain.
Western Ag Radio Network 1/15/08