Port may fund PCC Rail Authority

To compensate for a lack of state funds, the Port of Whitman County is considering shouldering the financial burden of the PCC Rail Authority, overseer of the state-owned Palouse River and Coulee City Railroad.

The port’s money, estimated to be around $15,000, will help keep the organization alive long enough to seek out state and federal funding for much-needed repairs along the 300-mile line.

Twenty million dollars from the state has already been spent on repairs along the line - money that has now run dry.

The estimated $15,000 in funding, commissioners said, would act as an “iron lung” to keep alive their efforts to acquire state and federal funding to upgrade and repair the railroad.

Many of the bridges on the lines are still in need of rehabilitation, and shippers have requested higher quality rail to allow trains to haul freight more quickly.

Port of Whitman County officials will likely decide today, Thursday, to commit the first local dollars to the PCC Rail Authority- the entity in charge of Palouse River and Coulee City Railroad.

Port commissioners discussed at a special meeting last Thursday, Feb. 25, committing port dollars to maintain the work of the PCC Rail Authority.

Port of Whitman commissioners John Love and Dan Boone seemed to be on board with the plan at last week’s meeting.

“Well, I think we’ve touched the body, so to speak,” said Love. “Now we’re into it.”

Commissioners at today’s meeting will consider creating a line item in the port’s budget to support the rail authority.

The rail authority was formed in 2008 with representatives from the four counties in which the three rail lines are located.

The 300–mile railroad system runs in Whitman, Spokane, Lincoln and Grant counties.

The tracks of the shortline railroads, which feed the Burlington Northern Santa Fe mainline, have deteriorated after years of deferred maintenance.

Initial goal of the rail authority was to target rehabilitation projects for those lines which the legislature had dedicated more than $20 million. Most of that money came from taxes on new and used vehicle sales.

However, with the $20 million now spent, Joe Poire, executive director of the port, told commissioners the authority needs to seek funding if the lines are going to be further improved.

Thus far, officials in the four counties in which the railroad runs have pressed lawmakers for funding. Their selling point has been that the state purchased the railroad and now needs to provide maintenance funding like it would for state-owned highways.

To date, the approach has generated zero dollars from legislators.

“We’ve gotten to the point where there’s more strategy needed than just to ‘save the rails,’” said Poire.

The port’s money, estimated to be around $15,000, will be used to account for time spent by port staff on acquiring funding and maintaining the rail authority’s web presence.