State to Buy Railroad in Washington
Friday February 9, 10:50 am ET
State Agrees to Buy Railroad, Critical Transportation Link, in Eastern Washington
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) – The state has agreed to buy the third branch of the Palouse River and Coulee City Railroad, an important transportation link for farmers and businesses in eastern Washington, the governor’s office announced.
http://www.columbian.com/news/state/APStories/AP02092007news102310.cfm
Well here’s the thing…
This particular Northern Pacific branch used to run from Cheney up through the upper wheat country of Washington to Coulee City (the current line), then back down south through the Moses Lake area to reconnect with the NP mainline at Connell. Historically and to our present time, most of the grain grown in this area has headed to a West Coast port for export. Thus, the “revenue direction” if you will runs east to west. But, when BN abandoned part of this line to reduce excess capacity, they abandoned the Coulee City to Connell section, leaving only the Coulee City to Cheney section which runs west to east. Logic dictates that any abandonment should have occurred on the eastern section of the branch, leaving the westbound connection intact. So in effect you have all the westbound grain traveling a hundred or so miles in the wrong direction before hitting the mainline.
Compouding this is the opening of the Templin Ritzville shuttle facility on the BNSF mainline roughly 30 miles south of the branch in question. Most grain shippers who would normally depend on the Coulee City branch more often than not will truck their grain down to Ritzville rather than using the branch. Hence, the branch is probably not worth keeping in it’s current alignment.
The other two branches are more viable, since they allow the grain to flow in the “correct” direction for the most part. Even so, it has to have occurred to someone at WSDOT that what they are doing is preserving lines with 1880’s alignments, rather than considering modernizing the state owned rail system with newer, more direct lines.
What the State should seriously consider is building brand new rail links that would allow complementary commodity flows rather than maintaining the sometimes convaluted routings now employed. Rebuild the Coulee City to Connell section and abandon the eastern end of the Coulee City branch. An
I lived in Soap Lake,WN in 1963-64 and the Odair south part of this line was not being used then. I do believe the NP ran north from Connell and turned back in the Moses Lake area, rust on the rail showed they seldom. if ever, went further north.
Well, that’s NP for you! NP management at the time judged a line’s worth based on the propencity of online customers. Between Coulee City and the Moses Lake area the line had few if any customers, so from an operational standpoint they saw that portion as superfluous. Since this was before the days of consolidated grain facilities, there was very little OTR trucking of grain to farther away terminals. NP could embargo that portion of the line and still keep all the business. The fact that they were deadheading in the wrong direction for a hundred or so miles meant little to them.
Now you have more shorthaul OTR trucking to larger grain terminals like the Ritzville facility and the barge facilities farther south. No longer is the wrong way move the only move available to grain shippers. Thus, that forgotten section of the line would be more viable today in keeping rail efficiencies ahead of relative trucking efficiencies. The fact is, trucking 50 miles south to the Ritzville facility is more efficient than using a convaluted rail routing of about 200 miles to the same spot. By the same token, trucking 100 miles to a barge facility and barging the rest of the way to Kalama results in a more efficient move than going by rail from say Almira to Kalama. But with the Coulee City to Connel line in place, the rail routing would be more efficient because the comparable mileage is equal.