Officials discuss replacing Colfax-Pullman rail with trail

In a joint meeting last Wednesday at Pullman City Hall, officials with the county and both cities authorized Pullman Supervisor John Sherman to write a letter to request the state to “bank” the railroad right-of-way if and when the railroad is abandoned.

The rail connection was destroyed when the South Palouse River fire of August 2006 consumed a trestle just east of Colfax.

“Nothing’s been done since,” said Sherman. “We need to decide if we want to begin this complex and lengthy process of putting a trail in there.”

Since the fire, the line has been primarily used by the Washington & Idaho Railway Co. to store bulk cars.

Mike Rowswell, with the state rail office, told the local officials the department can include trail funding in its 2012 funding request to the Legislature with a letter of local support.

Pullman Mayor Glenn Johnson said he has heard a lot of interest from citizens of Pullman in converting the railroad to a trail.

“It’s a very beautiful route. It’s just beautiful back there,” said Johnson.

DOT rail officials are considering pulling up the rail between Colfax and Pullman and using it to reconnect the abandoned line between Thornton and Oakesdale.

Colfax Mayor Norma Becker said she would prefer to see the bridge fixed and have rail service between Colfax and Pullman resume.

“I’m pro-railroad, actually. So I would like to see the railroad be more useful because it takes pressure off our roads,” said Becker.

Becker did note removal of the railroad along the west end of the South Fork Palouse River channel in Colfax would provide an ideal trail.

“I think it would make a great trail if the line through Colfax was pulled up,” she said.

Sherman noted the trail could link to a larger trailway across the Palouse by linking to the Chipman Trail and the Latah Trail that runs from Moscow to Troy. A Colfax-Troy trail link would extend approximately 40 miles.

A December 2007 study commissioned by the state Department of Transportation showed the cost of reconnecting Thornton and Oakesdale would cost $10.5 million. That figure drops to $7.25 million if the rails from the Colfax to Pullman line are recycled for the northern link.

The northern link would provide Pullman to the same rail system via the P & L line north to Oakesdale. The Thornton-Oakesdale right-of-way was part of the former Union Pacific track which continued north to Tekoa and into Spokane County.

“Oakesdale has become a big shipping hub now,” said Commissioner Greg Partch. “It’s the biggest one in Whitman County.”

Stan Patterson, president of the railway, said he would prefer the northern link.

Patterson said the northern connection would provide shippers access to both the Burlington Northern Santa Fe and Union Pacific mainline routes to the coast. That, he said, could open up competition and lower rail shipping rates. An Oakesdale-Thornton link provides access to the Union Pacific system via St. John and Winona to Hooper.

Patterson last Wednesday said most of the revenue the company receives for storing cars on the defunct Colfax-Pullman line is used to cover costs of noxious weed spraying.

Patterson also said the steep grade out the west end of Colfax requires railroads to use an extra engine to pull loaded cars or to split up train loads to haul fewer cars up the hill.

The South Palouse River route has 17 other bridges along the route from Colfax to Pullman. They would soon need repair if rail traffic resumes.

“Not one of them is in a newer condition,” said Whitman County Public Works Director Mark Storey. “So even if you had the money to replace that trestle, you’d still have 15 or 16 other bridges you’d have to bring back.”

All officials agreed the state should preserve the right-of-way if the tracks are pulled.

If the line is abandoned, and the state does not opt to “bank” the right-of-way, ownership of that property would revert to adjacent landowners.

Mayor Becker and Commissioner Partch recalled the lost opportunity of letting that happen to the right-of-way line from Colfax to Garfield when Union Pacific rail service was stopped there.

The metal of the Pullman/Colfax rail line gleams in the spring sun. The line has been out of commission since 2006 and officials are considering the route for a trail.

Partch noted the right-of-way could have been used to run a natural gas pipeline to Garfield. The town does not have gas service.

Tim Myers, director of Whitman County’s Parks Department, said any agreement should require the state to maintain or provide funding to maintain the trail. He said the county pays about $10,000 each year to spray the seven -mile long Chipman Trail.

Mayor Becker proposed an alternative funding source.

“Who knows? Somebody might develop a money tree to help us out,” she said.

“That’s how we balance our budget,” laughed Partch.