Serving Whitman County since 1877
Colfax city council members Monday night listened to pro and con comments on the proposal to convert the now-closed Colfax-Pullman railroad line into a multi-purpose trail
Pullman Civic Trust President Lisa Carloye gave a power point presentation on the trail concept at the start of the council session. She said the first priority for the trust is to convince residents and government entities to pursue rail banking of the rail right-of-way vs. abandonment of the line.
Owners of property adjoining the trail have requested the right-of-way be abandoned.
The railroad, once part of the Union Pacific line, has been closed since the 2006 S. Palouse River fire which burned out the trestle about two miles east of Colfax.
The railroad line is now part of the Palouse River & Coulee City system which has its own authority and is part of the state Department of Transportation.
A planning study of the PRCC issued earlier this year projected pending closure of the Colfax-Palouse line and also the one rail line which now serves Pullman. That line, formerly the Burlington Northern, would be closed south of Fallon, the last place where the railroad now does business.
Washington & Idaho Railway, based in Rosalia, is now operator on the east side line.
Carloye stressed the potential for economic impact with eventual development of the trail. She noted the goods and services that are required by users of bicycle trails.
Development of the trail would leave Colfax as a trailhead at the north end of a 50-mile trail system that would link up with the Pullman trails, the Chipman Trail to Moscow and the Latah Trail, which continues south to beyond Troy. Carloye added that the Latah proponents expect to extend the trail down the grade to Kendrick.
She noted the Pullman Civic Trust sees abandonment of the railroad right-of-way as a “huge loss of opportunity” for the area.
A cost of developing the 19 miles of a trail was not cited at the Monday presentation. Carloye stressed the first step was to convince the state to rail bank the right-of-way. The trust has suggested forming a trail authority along the lines of the five-entity group which maintains the Chipman Trail. Projected annual cost of maintaining the right-of-way, most of it involved with weed control, was $25,000, she said.
Late in Monday night’s discussion, Carloye said actual development of the trail could be funded for the most part through grant awards.
Barney Buckley, who lives along the railroad on the S. Palouse River Road, was the first resident to speak after Mayor Todd Vanek invited members of the audience to comment at the end of the council session. Buckley said the 19 miles of railroad includes 16 trestles with timbers, many of them in poor condition. He noted maintaining the high trestles would be much more costly that the trestles along the Chipman Trail.
The trestle costs would be topped by replacing the span which was destroyed by the 2006 fire.
Buckley noted Union Pacific and then Watco, which sold the right-of-way to the state, could no longer operate the line at a profit. Shipments of fertilizer and coal for the former WSU heating plant no longer exist, he said.
Debbie Snell, properties and development manager for the Port of Whitman, pointed out the $25,000 cost of maintaining a rail-banked right -of-way, could wind uo coming out of the annual $400,000 budget for the PRCC under the state’s Department of Transportation. She noted the budget is already strained.
Glenn Myers, who operates a storage facility next to the railroad below Lower A Street in Colfax, said he was concerned about emergency access to the Colfax-Pullman line. He noted parts of the line are remote and lack the ready access that is available along the Chipman Trail which runs along the Moscow-Pullman Highway.
Myers also said he believes most of the property along the line consists of operation easements which could revert to adjoining owners once the rail line is abandoned. He said he believes the few fee simple property titles the state now owns along the rail line are at former elevator stations.
Mayor Todd Vanek at the end of the discussion pointed out development of trails has been the number-one request for Colfax residents on recreation surveys going back 10 years. He added the city has already taken steps to enhance former railroad properties, but added any action on the Colfax-Pullman line would have to wait until the state makes its decision.
Reader Comments(0)