First, the governor said no Friday. On Monday, he put it in writing and sent a letter to RailAmerica. Ted Kulongoski isn’t going to budge on his demand that the railroad company repair and re-open the Coos Bay rail line before the state will consider any involvement in its operation.

“To put it succinctly, my bottom line has not changed,” Kulongoski wrote to RailAmerica’s vice president of operations, Paul Lundberg.

Last week, the company sent Kulongoski a letter proposing a 50-50 joint venture between its subsidiary Central Oregon & Pacific Railroad and the Oregon Department of Transportation to own and operate the Coos Bay line.

CORP proposed adding the real estate and the tracks to the deal, along with its revenue from anything shipped from Vaughn near Eugene down — not up — the line. In return, the company sought an estimated $23 million from the state to rehabilitate the entire line — not just to fix the three tunnels originally listed as the reason for its closure.

Kulongoski’s letter reiterated what he told company officials in person Jan. 24 and in writing Feb. 12.

“Your choice seems clear: either re-open the line or seek abandonment,” he wrote Monday.

Bob Ragon, the spokesman for the Coos-Siskiyou Shippers Coalition, said his organization is right behind the governor, and will sit down at the table only when the governor convenes all parties involved.

“The governor’s taking the lead on this. ... We’re totally in support of that,” he said this morning.

Ragon said, while he hadn’t seen last week’s actual proposal from the railroad, his organization is standing firm that the railroad must repair and re-open the tracks.

The issue will be discussed before the U.S. Surface Transportation Board on Thursday. The regulatory agency will hold two days of hearings on the common carrier obligations of railroads.

Parties angered by the closure of the Coos Bay line are front and center. The agency has scheduled 20 minutes of time each for Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.; Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore.; and Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., to speak. Allyn Ford, the president of Roseburg Forest Products and representing the Coos-Siskiyou Shippers Coalition, has 10 minutes to talk. They all are first on the agenda.

RailAmerica’s Lundberg is scheduled to speak Friday morning.

On April 12, the board issued a decision to RailAmerica, demanding it explain its lack of action. It ordered the railroad to justify why it should be allowed to keep the rail line closed and why it shouldn’t be forced to fix the tunnels and run railcars — or give up ownership. RailAmerica must respond by May 12.

Also in the works, the Oregon International Port of Coos Bay is working with its attorneys to file a “feeder line application” to the board to force the railroad to fix it or sell it. As part of that process, the port would have to produce a plan for how it would buy and then operate the line for three years. Port Executive Director Jeffrey Bishop has said his agency has no intention of running the railroad, rather it would seek another railroad to run it.