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Rail line users form coalition to fight closure
By Elise Hamner, City Editor
Saturday, December 01, 2007 | No comments posted.
COOS BAY — South Coast manufacturers are joining with their counterparts from Roseburg to the Rogue Valley to form a coalition of shippers in response to closure of the Coos Bay rail line.
The Coos-Siskiyou Shippers Coalition sent out a press release Thursday announcing their combined efforts when it comes to economic issues.
“The purpose of the formation of the Coalition is to organize the shippers so that they can speak with one voice and to get a seat at the table where decisions are made that negatively impact economic interests in all of southwest Oregon,” Allyn Ford, president and CEO of Roseburg Forest Products, said in the press release.
Ford’s company is the largest shipper on the Coos and Siskiyou lines of the Central Oregon & Pacific Railroad. And his company is among several hurt when CORP ended rail service between Coos Bay and Eugene in late September.
RFP and 17 other companies formally set up the coalition on Tuesday. Ford is the chairman. The group brings together shippers affected by the abrupt closure of the Coos Bay rail line and the rumored closure of the Siskiyou line.
CORP officials have not returned calls and e-mails seeking comment. At a meeting two weeks ago with Southwest Oregon shippers in Eugene, company officials sidestepped the issue of the Siskiyou line closure. At the time, CORP officials didn’t say yes or no.
Bob Jones, the western region vice president of RailAmerica, CORP’s parent company, told shippers the railroad was two to three weeks away from making its findings on the issue.
“We haven’t made a decision. In fact, we’re going to talk about it again Monday,” Jones said Friday, referring to meeting of senior railroad managers.
Should the company decide to close that end of the operations, Jones said CORP would give shippers at least 30 days’ notice.
“We learned from a source that they are already taking action down in California, that they are taking cars off the tracks,” Bob Ragon, the executive director of the Douglas Timber Operators, said Friday.
Ragon declined to elaborate, but speculated it won’t be long before shippers lose their rail link that feeds rail cars into an area known as Black Butte, near Weed, Calif.
Jones said CORP has done no such thing.
“Before we do anything we will meet with the customers and let them know what the plan is,” he said.
Already, rail traffic is crunched at a switching yard at Winchester, near Roseburg. Construction was under way on a new $9.6 million rail yard there for C ORP to ease congestion. But angry state officials pulled $7 million in grant funding for the project after the railroad shut-down the Coos Bay line. A few weeks ago, crews had flattened the lot and were moving rock. Ragon said that on Friday when he drove by the site, no one was working.
Ragon said he expects the situation to get much worse if shippers are forced to send more trains north, rather than into California.
“It’s going to double the amount of train traffic coming through Roseburg and it’s a headache already,” he said.
On Thursday and Friday, U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., motored around the region and met with representatives from the Oregon International Port of Coos Bay, business groups and shippers.
This week’s flurry of activity won’t be the end of it. The new shippers coalition plans to hold a press conference in Roseburg on Thursday to publicly share their concerns over rail.
And that’s not the end of issues bubbling on the railroad front burner. The port this week threatened to file suit over lack of settlement on permanent repairs to the Coos Bay Rail Bridge, which CORP leased from the port. Two shipping companies struck the bridge over the past four years. The port contends no permanent repairs were made after either accident.
Port officials and a local contractor thought the $1.66 million job would get a final go-ahead this week, but a dispute between Foss Maritime Harbor Services and CORP has stalled it.
RailAmerica’s Jones said placed the blame on Foss, saying it’s that company’s obligation to pay for repairs and oversee the work.
“It’s not our obligation to fix it just because we’re there,” he said.
Port commissioners on Monday gave the port’s executive director authorization to seek damages in court if no settlement was reached by week’s end.
The Coos-Siskiyou Shippers Coalition sent out a press release Thursday announcing their combined efforts when it comes to economic issues.
“The purpose of the formation of the Coalition is to organize the shippers so that they can speak with one voice and to get a seat at the table where decisions are made that negatively impact economic interests in all of southwest Oregon,” Allyn Ford, president and CEO of Roseburg Forest Products, said in the press release.
Ford’s company is the largest shipper on the Coos and Siskiyou lines of the Central Oregon & Pacific Railroad. And his company is among several hurt when CORP ended rail service between Coos Bay and Eugene in late September.
RFP and 17 other companies formally set up the coalition on Tuesday. Ford is the chairman. The group brings together shippers affected by the abrupt closure of the Coos Bay rail line and the rumored closure of the Siskiyou line.
CORP officials have not returned calls and e-mails seeking comment. At a meeting two weeks ago with Southwest Oregon shippers in Eugene, company officials sidestepped the issue of the Siskiyou line closure. At the time, CORP officials didn’t say yes or no.
Bob Jones, the western region vice president of RailAmerica, CORP’s parent company, told shippers the railroad was two to three weeks away from making its findings on the issue.
“We haven’t made a decision. In fact, we’re going to talk about it again Monday,” Jones said Friday, referring to meeting of senior railroad managers.
Should the company decide to close that end of the operations, Jones said CORP would give shippers at least 30 days’ notice.
“We learned from a source that they are already taking action down in California, that they are taking cars off the tracks,” Bob Ragon, the executive director of the Douglas Timber Operators, said Friday.
Ragon declined to elaborate, but speculated it won’t be long before shippers lose their rail link that feeds rail cars into an area known as Black Butte, near Weed, Calif.
Jones said CORP has done no such thing.
“Before we do anything we will meet with the customers and let them know what the plan is,” he said.
Already, rail traffic is crunched at a switching yard at Winchester, near Roseburg. Construction was under way on a new $9.6 million rail yard there for C ORP to ease congestion. But angry state officials pulled $7 million in grant funding for the project after the railroad shut-down the Coos Bay line. A few weeks ago, crews had flattened the lot and were moving rock. Ragon said that on Friday when he drove by the site, no one was working.
Ragon said he expects the situation to get much worse if shippers are forced to send more trains north, rather than into California.
“It’s going to double the amount of train traffic coming through Roseburg and it’s a headache already,” he said.
On Thursday and Friday, U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., motored around the region and met with representatives from the Oregon International Port of Coos Bay, business groups and shippers.
This week’s flurry of activity won’t be the end of it. The new shippers coalition plans to hold a press conference in Roseburg on Thursday to publicly share their concerns over rail.
And that’s not the end of issues bubbling on the railroad front burner. The port this week threatened to file suit over lack of settlement on permanent repairs to the Coos Bay Rail Bridge, which CORP leased from the port. Two shipping companies struck the bridge over the past four years. The port contends no permanent repairs were made after either accident.
Port officials and a local contractor thought the $1.66 million job would get a final go-ahead this week, but a dispute between Foss Maritime Harbor Services and CORP has stalled it.
RailAmerica’s Jones said placed the blame on Foss, saying it’s that company’s obligation to pay for repairs and oversee the work.
“It’s not our obligation to fix it just because we’re there,” he said.
Port commissioners on Monday gave the port’s executive director authorization to seek damages in court if no settlement was reached by week’s end.
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