Port tries again for rail grant

With construction on the high speed grain train loading facility at McCoy expected to begin this spring, the Port of Whitman County is again vying for $8.5 million in federal funds to fix up the track leading to the site.

Joe Poire, port executive director, said the port sent off another grant application to the federal Department of Transportation.

Funding would be used to replace tracks and rebuild 25 bridges on the state-owned P&L shortline railroad. The shortline connects the Palouse to the Burlington Northern Santa Fe mainline at Marshall.

Years of deferred maintenance on the track have limited train traffic to under 25 miles per hour on the line.

Sam White, Chief Operating Officer for PNW Farmers Cooperative, said last month construction on the $16 million train loader should begin this spring.

This will be the fourth application the port has made to the federal grant program known as Transportation Improvement Generating Economic Recovery, or TIGER. The three previous applications have been denied.

Poire said the application sent Friday will have a few minor changes from the application rejected last month.

“The state rail office employees are trying to massage this thing so we could get this done in 12 months,” said Poire.

Previous applications have included a longer timeline to replace the tracks. That longer period, said Poire, likely cost the agency’s application when it was scored in the grant award process.

The facility will allow quick loading of 110-car unit trains that can be put right onto the BNSF mainline for shipment to Portland. It would allow Palouse grain to be shipped more easily to markets east.

A new rail yard at Portland has the capacity to unload eight 418,000-bushel trains at one time.

Another advantage would be the ability to ship large loads of grain to markets east of Washington, said White.

The larger 110-car trains are preferred by mainline carriers because they can pull them straight from the shortline system instead of hooking smaller car units into their trains.