COQUILLE (AP) — The company that operates the Central Oregon & Pacific Railroad has offered to spend what’s needed to repair unsafe tunnels and get a 120-mile line from Eugene to the Oregon coast reopened by fall.

But in a letter to Gov. Ted Kulongoski, a RailAmerica vice president said the company would only pay the estimated $23 million if the state agrees to provide money for other improvements and ongoing support that would make the line viable long term.

“We believe this sort of public commitment to be clearly in the state’s long-term interests of preserving freight transportation in southwest Oregon,” Paul Lundberg wrote in a letter obtained by The (Roseburg) News-Review newspaper. “Our plan is practical, realistic and far less costly to the public than any plan that presumes the state acquiring ownership of the line from Vaughn to Coquille.”

A Kulongoski spokeswoman said the governor’s office is preparing a response.

The RailAmerica letter follows a meeting late last month in Salem between the governor, Lundberg, U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio, state transportation officials and shippers.

During that meeting, Kulongoski said the state would not consider pumping any money into the line until it was reopened.

RailAmerica previously offered to put up $4.66 million while seeking a group of public and private concerns to foot the rest of the repair bill. It had also asked for $10 million over five years to cover $1.5 million in annual losses to operate the spur line.

The railroad closed the line in September for safety reasons. It said at the time there wasn’t enough traffic to warrant the cost of repairs.