The Northwestern Pacific rail line in Northern California is very similar to the stretch of track CORP is trying to abandon. The route runs through rugged terrain and communities that have seen a decline in their main export: timber products. Like the Coos Bay line, the route was operated by the Southern Pacific for years. A drop in rail traffic and increasing maintenance costs led the company to give up on it. A short-line railroad, Eureka Southern, briefly continued service during the mid-’80s, but it declared bankruptcy after battling the same problems.

At this point, the state stepped in. The California Legislature passed a bill in 1989 to create the North Coast Railroad Authority, which would preserve and restore the line. A companion bill was authored that would fund the fledging agency, but according to the authority’s Web site, Gov. George Deukmejian vetoed it.

Despite this setback, the NCRA managed to keep the line open from 1992 through 1998, operating on rail-traffic revenues. When a series of winter storms lashed the coast in the late 1990s, the line was damaged, particularly along the northern stretch from Willits to Eureka. There wasn’t enough money to make repairs and the Federal Railroad Administration shut it down, according to Mitch Stogner, the authority’s executive director.

Stogner joined the association in 2003, at which point the line had been unused for five years, save for a brief period in 2001 when service was offered only near the south end.

He has since secured financing to repair and reopen the 62 southernmost miles of track. And instead of operating the line itself, the authority has found a former Southern Pacific employee to run the trains.

“We use public dollars to make infrastructure repairs ... and once in place, a private operator pays rent to use the line,” Stogner said. “The thing of the future is the public-private partnership.”

Stogner said there is demand for service along the Northwestern Pacific, but politics has prevented the start of repairs.

The agency is governed by a nine-member board, with representatives from Humboldt, Mendocino, Sonoma and Marin counties. While Humboldt officials hope to eventually see the restoration of the entire line, Marin residents have filed a lawsuit to stop any work from commencing. Stogner said those in opposition to the project argue the resumption of rail service would produce unwanted noise, disrupt vehicle traffic at railroad crossings and put the environment at risk. For now, the 316 miles overseen by the NCRA remain silent.