COOS BAY — The Central Oregon & Pacific Railroad was justified in closing its Coos Bay rail line earlier this fall.

That’s the conclusion of a Federal Railroad Administration inspection report, ordered by Congressman Peter DeFazio, D-Ore. The Nov. 9 report made public this week supports a private consulting engineering firm’s conclusions that three tunnels along the Coos Bay rail line are unsafe.

A team of FRA and Federal Highway Administration engineers went to the tunnels on Oct. 9. Two are near Florence and one is near Mapleton. The engineers walked through each tunnel from portal to portal with a highway-rail truck carrying flood lights to illuminate the walls and ceilings.

Once inside, they found rotting timber supports. Chunks of rock rest on top of deteriorating timber support sets. And worse, some timber sets have rotted at their bases and slid off footings.

“These tunnels are hazardous to train traffic and maintenance operations. Any future inspection or maintenance should be done with great care, with an understanding of the potential hazards,” the report concluded.

CORP filed an embargo Sept. 21 to close the line, citing deteriorated tunnels. Railroad managers said their decision was based on a July 16 report based on tunnel inspections conducted mainly in late March by Shannon & Wilson Inc. engineers.

But it was the lack of warning, the one-day’s notice of the rail line closure, that has angered shippers and led to a lawsuit by the Oregon International Port of Coos Bay. The port’s complaint filed in U.S. District Court contends CORP violated lease agreements for its use of the Coos Bay Rail Bridge and the North Spit rail for not giving 180 days’ advance notice of a shutdown.

DeFazio conceded Thursday that the report did validate CORP’s contention that the tunnels are dangerous. However, he remained adamant that CORP and its parent company, RailAmerica, should give up ownership of the rail line. He also stressed his opposition to a proposal the company floated Wednesday that calls for a public-private partnership to spend more than $23 million to make repairs to tunnels, bridges and rail on the line.

“I think what these people offered is a bad-faith offer,” he said.

At the meeting, RailAmerica’s Regional Vice President Bob Jones said he was the one who opted to shut down the line. He said the railroad could have done a better job communicating, but his top concern was the safety of  employees. He made his decision after riding through the tunnels and becoming fearful of a collapse.

“As we ran through it and we had the vibrations from the cars and locomotive, it got worse,” he said.

Roseburg Forest Product’s traffic manager, Andy Jeffers, said he was reviewing RailAmerica’s proposal with senior managers at the company. It would mean RFP would pay an extra $204 per rail car to ship out plywood from Coquille.

“Obviously it’s an increase in costs, and I’m not real sure how that’s all going to shake out,” he said.

RailAmerica also is calling on the state to pay — $4.6 million outright for repairs and millions more to subsidize railroad operations and maintenance.

Gov. Ted Kulongoski talked about it on Thursday with DeFazio. The governor also has asked Attorney General Hardy Myers to review the issue, said Patty Wentz, the governor’s interim communications director.

All the while, the port is pursing a takeover.

“The bottom line is they are asking for a relationship and relationships are built on trust,” the port’s executive director Jeffrey Bishop said. “There’s no evidence that we can trust them in any business dealing.”

The port commission has told Bishop to pursue an application with the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to force CORP to sell the rail line. To do it, the port must put together an operation and acquisition plan. The process could take at least a year and there’s no guarantee federal officials will agree. But the port, for one, already is lining up supporters. DeFazio is one.

“I’m sort of at this, working to be a facilitator or an agitator,” he said Thursday.

The governor’s office is watching, too.

“The governor wants to be a partner with the Port of Coos Bay to get this issue resolved,” Wentz said.