Central Oregon & Pacific Railroad has just a few hours left to file a response about alternative rail service on the South portion of the Siskiyou line with the Surface Transportation Board. Roseburg Forest Products, Timber Products,Suburban Propane and Yreka Western Railroad filed last Tuesday to request the added service. All three say in the filing increased freight rates and poor service over the Siskiyou’s are the main reasons for the request. If approved by the STB the “West Texas & Lubbock Railway” have been chosen by the shippers to start moving freight over the Siskiyou’s. An objection by CORP is expected to be filed this week. The STB could make a final determination on the petition in the next 30 days.
Well, that would possibly solve that part of CORP. But who has stepped forward to offer service over the Coos Bay line (and by this, I mean which shortline conglomerate NOT RailAmerica?) BTW, West Texas & Lubbock is owned by Iowa Pacific Holdings- sister roads include the Arizona Eastern and Texas & New Mexico.
Hopefully the IPH web site is up to date: Arizona Eastern Railway Central Car Repair Permian Basin Railways San Luis & Rio Grande Railroad Texas – New Mexico Railroad West Texas & Lubbock Railway Chicago Terminal Railroad Boxcab E50
There has been a number of proposed operators. The Portland & Western, RailServe, The Yreka Western and Dan Lovelady. The STB has asked the Port for details and how the railroad would operate. The Port can operate the line or apoint an operator. Everything is under review by the STB. All of this could come to a head by the end of this month or mid October.
By David Smith Siskiyou Daily News Mon Sep 08, 2008, 09:28 AM PDT Yreka, Calif. - Central Oregon and Pacific Railroad (CORP) submitted their response last Wednesday to a petition filed by members of the Coos–Siskiyou Shippers Coalition (CSSC) with the Surface Transportation Board (STB), asking for the STB to step in and grant local shippers the ability to have a third party railroad run a portion of the Siskiyou Summit line, which the CSSC and others claim has been inadequately served by CORP. CORP’s reply, a 70–page file, said, “[CORP] has met all reasonable requests for railroad service on the line between Black Butte, CA and Dillard, OR. CORP’s service is not inadequate. However, due to lack of shipper demand, CORP has not served the line between Montague, CA and Ashland, OR since May 6, 2008, the last date that service was requested.” CORP went on to say that they want to come to an agreement with shippers over how to proceed, without having to resort to a “government–mandated solution.” The reply goes on to say that CORP would allow Western Texas and Lubbock (WTL) to run operations over the Siskiyou Line from Montague to Ashland if WTL meets certain criteria. Those include: “components of compensation: the variable cost incurred by the owning carrier as a result of the tenant carrier’s operation over the owning carrier’s tracks; tenant carrier’s proportionate share of track maintenance and operation expenses; an interest or rental component designed to compensate the owning carrier for use of tracks; WTL would have to accept liability for any harm caused by its operations and provide sufficient insurance; CORP would require WTL to ensure that their engineers are qualified to operate on the territory and has appropriate locomotives and; CORP would expect to be compensated for any costs incurred in qualifying WTL personnel.” If no agreement is met, according to the reply, then CORP will use the reply as a means to dissuade the STB from finding in favor of the shippers, of which CORP said in the reply repeatedly “the issue is disagreement over price, not inadequate service.” In the reply, CORP also said that the time taken by the shippers to find WTL was not indicative of a need for emergency service, saying that the shippers “would not have ‘dallied’ if it were an emergency.” CORP also claims that they have never stopped service over the line, instead Timber Products and Roseburg Forest Products, two of the shippers on the line, switched to trucks, which CORP insists was done willingly and as an alternative to rail. The rates to ship over the Siskiyou Line jumped around 300 percent, which CORP said was “pricing to market,” a move which Timber Products and Roseburg said forced them to ship by truck. CORP also claims that WTL is unqualified to run the Siskiyou Line, saying that WTL has no experience with a line in steep, mountainous terrain, also stating that WTL’s parent companies have a “history” of being behind on their rent to Rail America, CORP’s parent company. In the conclusion to the reply, CORP states: “CORP respectfully requests the Board to hold this proceeding in abeyance to permit CORP and WTL to negotiate an agreement for WTL to provide rail operations along the lines that CORP has outlined above. In the event that the negotiations and mediation before the Board fail to result in short–term operations by WTL, CORP respectfully requests the Board to deny the emergency service sought by Petitioners because they have failed to demonstrate that over an identified period of time, there has been a substantial, measurable deterioration or other demonstrated inadequacy of rail service provided by CORP.”
