(The Associated Press circulated the following on June 10.)
CORVALLIS, Ore. — The Portland & Western Railroad has announced a shutdown of a branch line running south from Corvallis beginning June 16, but shippers and local officials say they will fight the move.
A railroad executive, citing safety concerns, said the move is the first step toward permanently abandoning the Bailey Branch, a 23-mile spur that serves fewer than a dozen cargo shippers in south Benton County.
“Due to the track’s condition, it has become unsafe to operate down there,” said P&W President Bruce Carswell. There have been five minor derailments on the Bailey Branch in the past five weeks.
Customers include Western Pulp Products in the Corvallis Airport Industrial Park, grass-seed producer Venell Farms and the historic steam-powered Hull-Oakes Lumber Co. mill at the lines terminus in Dawson.
Former Hull-Oakes partner Wayne Giesy, a spokesman for the south county freight shippers, said his group isn’t about to give up on the line.
“We plan to contest it,” Giesy said of the abandonment plan.
“Its disappointing,” said Benton County Commissioner Linda Modrell, a longtime rail-service advocate. “We will continue to push on this, but I also understand their problem.”
The problem is a combination of poorly maintained tracks and low freight volumes.
The Bailey Branch has been in sad shape since the Portland & Western — also known locally as the Willamette & Pacific — began leasing the tracks in 1993, first from Southern Pacific and now from the new owner, Union Pacific.
Portland & Western officials have been threatening for years to abandon the line but have always backed off in the face of fierce opposition from shippers, elected officials and others determined to maintain the service.
Abandonment requires approval from the federal Surface Transportation Board. The request would have to come from the Union Pacific, which previously has declined to make it.
Despite some $350,000 in state-funded repairs over the last few years and some additional work by the railroad, rotting crossties and light-gauge rails still limit freight trains to 7 mph, even slower on the worst stretches.
Freight volumes have never been high on the line and they continue to fall. Last year the Bailey Branch moved just 630 railcars, down nearly 100 carloads in just two years. The industry standard for a shortline railroad, Carswell said, is 100 carloads annually per mile of track.