Officials inspect closed rail line.

Byline: Winston Ross The Register-Guard

COOS BAY - Federal railroad officials inspected the 120-mile short line between Coquille and Eugene this week, in an attempt to figure out whether the Central Oregon and Pacific Railroad was justified in shutting it down.

The railroad announced Sept. 21 that it would immediately stop traffic on the critical route, because of three unsafe tunnels.

The move was a major blow for at least four major employers on the south coast that rely on the line to move lumber, wood chips and hunks of steel. Georgia-Pacific's sawmill laid off 120 employees after the line shut down, but called them back to work Monday.

As those employers shift to trucking their products, it is expected to increase truck traffic on the road to Eugene by 52 trucks per day.

CORP has provided a copy of its engineering report on the tunnels to the Oregon Department of Transportation and the Federal Railroad Administration, said Kelly Taylor, the state's rail division administrator.

But she said she had looked at it only briefly, and wanted to wait for feedback from a state engineer before commenting on its contents.

"It appears the report is pretty thorough," Taylor said. "It has information about each of the tunnels in it."

At issue is whether the railroad was justified in filing an "embargo" on the line, which is allowed under federal law only if there's some immediate condition that requires a shutdown, and only with an accompanying plan to fix the problem.

U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., asked the Federal Railroad Administration to inspect the line, to determine whether CORP's claims hold up.

If not, the congressman could challenge the embargo, which could lead to the company being forced to reopen the short line.

When CORP announced the shutdown, company officials said there wasn't enough traffic on the line to justify the estimated $7 million in repairs.

That comment led some politicians and local business people to suspect that the railroad was really trying to abandon the line - a process that can drag out for months - or at least force the government to help foot the bill.

The federal inspections, coupled with CORP's report, are key because they'll help government officials determine whether there's merit in challenging the embargo, or if there are better options, such as pursuing public funding or negotiating to buy the line altogether.

In recent meetings between CORP officials and local shippers and legislators, however, "the attitude (of CORP) that's been portrayed to me has been `this isn't really our problem. This is your problem. You want rail service? Help us out," said Martin Callery, director of communications and freight mobility for the Oregon International Port of Coos Bay.

At a meeting of south coast transportation interests on Thursday, Callery said he had heard that CORP was losing more than a million dollars annually on the Eugene-coast line, but that better traffic on the Siskiyou short line was blunting that impact.

He added that the port is still considering suing CORP, which has a lease with the port for operation of a rail bridge and spur that the agency uses to foster rail traffic to the North Spit.

Callery said he and the port's executive director, Jeffrey Bishop, had heard rumors that CORP was considering closing the Coos Bay line.

The two met with railroad officials Aug. 24, and were assured that there were no plans for a shutdown.

Callery said that, based on discussions with railroad officials, he estimatesthe closure of the Coos Bay line will put an additional 1,131 trucks per month, or 52 per day, on the road. North Bend City Administrator Jan Willis said she was concerned about the increased truck traffic.

There also was some good news at the meeting.

Roseburg Forest Products' Dave Jordan said that shipping products out of Eugene is as much as $5,000 per car cheaper than it is to load railroad cars in Coquille.

That savings will help diminish the estimated $120,000 per month increase in costs associated with having to truck product from Coquille to Eugene, Jordan said.