(The following story by Christian Bringhurst appeared on the News Review website on April 13.)
ROSEBURG, Ore. — A coalition of shippers opposed to the closure of the rail line from Coquille to Eugene hailed an order Friday from the federal Surface Transportation Board that demands Central Oregon & Pacific Railroad and its parent company, RailAmerica, defend its decision to keep the line closed.
The federal board ordered the railroad to show why the railroad’s failure to reopen the line should not be considered an unlawful abandonment.
“We were pleasantly surprised. In fact, we were preparing to file a legal complaint against them probably in the next three or four weeks,” said Bob Ragon, executive director of the Douglas Timber Operators and spokesman for the shippers coalition that formed after the September closure of the rail line. “They’re going to have to figure out if they want to run this railroad or not.”
The rail line was shut down after consultants hired by the railroad deemed several tunnels on the line unsafe. A separate federal study confirmed the finding, and railroad officials have since pressed for help from the state and shippers affected by the closure to pay for repairs estimated at $20.4 million. The railroad itself has indicated it would be willing to pay $2.9 million to repair the tunnels.
“We’re willing to make an investment and open up a partnership,” Ragon said.
However, “they had their own terms which they wouldn’t move off of.”
Ragon said a lot of the “ammunition” used against the railroad by the Surface Transportation Board came from documents RailAmerica had presented to the Legislature and Governor Ted Kulongoski.
“They kind of hung themselves with their own rope, so to speak.”
The Surface Transportation Board has jurisdiction over railroad rate and service issues and rail restructuring transactions such as mergers, line sales, line construction and line abandonments, according to the agency’s Web site.
U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio said the implications of Friday’s ruling are unclear, though he noted it was an unusually strong ruling from the federal board.
“The rules of the STB are arcane and not well known, so I can’t say exactly what the implications will be, but the point is that this is a fairly extraordinary rebuke of RailAmerica and the CORP,” DeFazio said.
DeFazio said if the Surface Transportation Board ultimately rules against the railroad, consequences could range from unknown penalties to an expedited abandonment process for the line.
“I’m not sure what path the STB might choose should they find the RailAmerica guilty of these actions,” DeFazio said, “but this is not an everyday event at the Surface Transportation Board.”
In its order, the board said though the railroad may have been justified in its initial embargo of the line, given the decrepit state of the tunnels, it “may have gone on for so long that it may have become an unlawful abandonment.”
An embargo occurs when a rail operator notifies the railroad industry and affected shippers that, in the operator’s opinion, a disability exists that temporarily keeps it from providing service, according to the Transportation Safety Board.
“The tunnel conditions that precipitated the embargo on September 21, 2007, did not arise from any sudden or unexpected event such as a landslide or other collapse,” stated the board. “Rather, it appears that the slow deterioration of the tunnels’ support structures — a decay that both RailAmerica and CORP had every opportunity to observe during the several years that they owned and operated the Line — eventually resulted in the condition that was used to justify the embargo.”
The board noted that RailAmerica had every right to look for other ways to help it offset the cost of repairs, as it has in seeking aid from the state and other shippers.
However, Kulongoski has twice stated Oregon will not help until the railroad has repaired its tunnels and resumed service.
“It does not appear that there is any reason for the railroad to delay either restoring the tunnels and providing service, or, if CORP does not want to serve the Line anymore, to seek relief from the obligation to provide service,” wrote the board.
“Because RailAmerica and CORP have done neither, the Line’s current status appears to be that of an unauthorized abandonment.”
The railroad must respond to the board’s order by May 12, after which the state of Oregon, the Port of Coos Bay, shippers on the line and Union Pacific Railroad Company will have 10 days to respond.
Ragon said negotiations to continue rail service over the Siskiyou mountains between Oregon and California are ongoing. Rail service over that line was curtailed late last year, and the railroad had announced it might close the line altogether.
It has since presented a proposal for keeping the line open, though Ragon has said CORP’s proposal would have tripled current shipping rates over the line.
“The CORP laid out a proposal which was cost-prohibitive for the shippers,” Ragon said. “The shippers countered and now CORP is coming back with their response with what the shippers proposed.”
Ragon said he expects a response from CORP as early as Tuesday, though he is not hopeful the railroad will react favorably to the shippers’ proposal.
A public relations spokesman at Tilson Communications, which represents RailAmerica, said RailAmerica would respond to written questions next week when it’s had a chance to evaluate the board’s decision on the Coquille to Eugene line.