Site search
sponsored by
News
ENLARGE
Charles "Chip" Nottingham, chairman of the federal Surface Transportation Board, listens to testimony during last week's rail hearing in Eugene, along with board member Douglas Buttrey.
Following last week’s daylong hearing in Eugene, the chairman of the federal Surface Transportation Board said it will be interesting to see if the International Oregon Port of Coos Bay can make the numbers work as it applies to take over the shuttered rail line linking Eugene and the coast.
The shutdown has impacted several Douglas County shippers. Before deciding on whether to allow the port to take over the line, Charles “Chip” Nottingham said the board would look at whether the port has the “financial wherewithal to make it happen.”
“We don’t actually insist that everyone have railroad expertise, because that can be contracted out,” he said. “But I would like more specific information coming forward about what the port exactly plans to do.”
Nottingham also said he could not speak to the specific issues in this case, but said there was evidence of neglect on the line going back through several past owners.
“Our responsibility is to try and see that the legal requirements get met and to protect, if possible, the stakeholders, the shippers and the communities they serve,” he said.
The port has already begun discussions with several short line rail companies about handling the operation side of the line if it is awarded to the port. It has now lined up $12 million in state and federal railroad money to assist in its efforts to buy the line.
The port offered CORP $9.8 million for the line, a price port officials represented a fair market price of the railroad’s assets.
Nottingham said he found it beneficial to hold the panel’s rail hearing last week in Oregon rather than in Washington, D.C., where the three-member board sits.
By holding the hearing in Eugene, a number of people who may not have been able to afford to fly across the country or take extra time off work were able to take part, the chairman said.
“It was a good hearing. It served its purpose for us,” Nottingham said. “The board wanted to get better acquainted with exactly what’s going on out here with the embargo and the application to abandon and also the collateral application to actually buy the line by the Port of Coos Bay.”
Roseburg-based Central Oregon & Pacific Railroad shut down the 111-mile line between Eugene and Coos Bay last September. Conditions inside several tunnels deteriorated to the point where they were unsafe, according to an analysis by an outside firm.
In the railroad industry, a shutdown is known as an “embargo.” CORP filed an application with the STB to abandon the line permanently, while the International Oregon Port of Coos Bay is seeking to take over the line.
The line over the Coast Range runs along some of the most rugged terrain in the nation, said Nottingham, the former head of the Virginia Department of Transportation. It’s also one of the most costly to maintain, he said.
While neither Nottingham nor fellow board member Douglas Buttrey, who also attended the Eugene hearing, gave any indication how they would side on the applications, Buttrey asked a hard question of Paul Lundberg, a vice president of CORP parent RailAmerica.
He asked Lundberg if he knew why people were so upset with his railroad for shutting the line down. When Lundberg said he didn’t know the answer, Buttrey responded, “I think I’ve figured it out.”
• You can reach reporter John Sowell at 957-4209 or by e-mail at jsowell@nrtoday.com.
The shutdown has impacted several Douglas County shippers. Before deciding on whether to allow the port to take over the line, Charles “Chip” Nottingham said the board would look at whether the port has the “financial wherewithal to make it happen.”
“We don’t actually insist that everyone have railroad expertise, because that can be contracted out,” he said. “But I would like more specific information coming forward about what the port exactly plans to do.”
Nottingham also said he could not speak to the specific issues in this case, but said there was evidence of neglect on the line going back through several past owners.
“Our responsibility is to try and see that the legal requirements get met and to protect, if possible, the stakeholders, the shippers and the communities they serve,” he said.
The port has already begun discussions with several short line rail companies about handling the operation side of the line if it is awarded to the port. It has now lined up $12 million in state and federal railroad money to assist in its efforts to buy the line.
The port offered CORP $9.8 million for the line, a price port officials represented a fair market price of the railroad’s assets.
Nottingham said he found it beneficial to hold the panel’s rail hearing last week in Oregon rather than in Washington, D.C., where the three-member board sits.
By holding the hearing in Eugene, a number of people who may not have been able to afford to fly across the country or take extra time off work were able to take part, the chairman said.
“It was a good hearing. It served its purpose for us,” Nottingham said. “The board wanted to get better acquainted with exactly what’s going on out here with the embargo and the application to abandon and also the collateral application to actually buy the line by the Port of Coos Bay.”
Roseburg-based Central Oregon & Pacific Railroad shut down the 111-mile line between Eugene and Coos Bay last September. Conditions inside several tunnels deteriorated to the point where they were unsafe, according to an analysis by an outside firm.
In the railroad industry, a shutdown is known as an “embargo.” CORP filed an application with the STB to abandon the line permanently, while the International Oregon Port of Coos Bay is seeking to take over the line.
The line over the Coast Range runs along some of the most rugged terrain in the nation, said Nottingham, the former head of the Virginia Department of Transportation. It’s also one of the most costly to maintain, he said.
While neither Nottingham nor fellow board member Douglas Buttrey, who also attended the Eugene hearing, gave any indication how they would side on the applications, Buttrey asked a hard question of Paul Lundberg, a vice president of CORP parent RailAmerica.
He asked Lundberg if he knew why people were so upset with his railroad for shutting the line down. When Lundberg said he didn’t know the answer, Buttrey responded, “I think I’ve figured it out.”
• You can reach reporter John Sowell at 957-4209 or by e-mail at jsowell@nrtoday.com.
