In response to an editorial stating “Don’t allow railroad to cherry pick the Coos Bay line,” (The World, July 16). The indignant writer lambasted the Central Oregon & Pacific for wanting to keep its own property — the 20 or 30 miles of the railroad closest to Eugene. The mills over there may keep that part of the line profitable. The remaining 100 miles or so, CORP wants to abandon. So now the Oregon International Port of Coos Bay wants to buy CORP’s line but only if the company is forced to part with the profitable part as well. I believe this is known as expropriation. And instead of accusing CORP of “cherry-picking” its own property, the editor would do well to identify the port as the cherry picker.  

This world is full of canals, railroads, roads, and, yes, harbors that have been abandoned. The Coos Bay line’s abandonment started decades ago. At one time it extended all the way to Powers. But in the early 1970s the Powers mill closed, and the track from Myrtle Point to Powers was torn up and sold to the Far East. In 1984, the segment between Coquille and Myrtle Point was removed. And now CORP has lost interest in serving Coos Bay at all, when it can only expect one-tenth its one-time carloads.  

But according to The World, “if the port can figure out how to finance railroad operations in a way that benefits shippers and taxpayers, then federal regulators should OK” forcing CORP to part with what it doesn’t want to part with.  

That’s a very big IF. The eager editor doesn’t know that the Port of Coos Bay has never run anything at a profit. The white elephants around town — the T-Dock, the barge slip, the abandoned fish plants in Charleston, and several more — are the results of failed port investments. In every case the port went out on a financial limb to acquire property to attract some private industry. But the industry never came, or it failed. So now once again we’re talking about spending millions to acquire an asset that may well lose its raison d’être.

A couple of years ago, when the port asked Roseburg and Georgia-Pacific to contribute $30 a carload to the repairs of the railroad bridge, the companies pleaded poverty and refused. If they’ve had a change of heart, let them get together and acquire the railroad themselves. But I doubt they will.