Re: Weekend News Bytes for April 11 -13, 2008 (update for April 12 on post #21)
Was the story about RailAmerica helping Michael Jackson pay off the mortgage debt ever turned out to be true?
http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/dt.cms.support.viewStory.cls?cid=92189&sid=1&fid=1
Federal board demands railroad explain its actions
ByWinston Ross
The Register-Guard
Published: April 12, 2008 12:00AM
COQUILLE — Federal railroad officials have issued a stern edict to the owner of a short line between Coquille and Eugene: By this time next month, Florida-based RailAmerica must prove that it didn’t unlawfully abandon the critical route.
The edict represents the first time a government agency has forced Central Oregon and Pacific Railroad to explain itself, and it could be a harbinger of the next step — a mandate to abandon the railroad altogether or to repair the aging tunnels that prompted the shutdown and reopen the line.
The Surface Transportation Board issued its order Thursday, asking tough questions about the railroad company’s claims when it closed the line six months ago and about its appeals for public funding since then.
The decision came as welcome news to lawmakers and advocates for the four major industrial companies on the south coast that have been moving products by truck or barge since the September shutdown. The added costs are estimated between $3 million and $4 million this year, said Bob Ragon, executive director of the Douglas Timber Operators, which is representing the affected lumber mills and steel company.
“This is very positive news,” Ragon said. “It looks like the STB is finally going to take some action.”
When CORP closed the line in September,it did so under federal rules that allow for an “embargo,” which is supposed to be a temporary emergency stoppage.
Embargoes often follow landslides or earthquakes that damage train tracks. But from the day the company announced its decision — with 24 hours notice to the affected shippers and government agencies — lawmakers and business representatives have voiced suspicions about RailAmerica’s stated reasons for the closure.
In its initial news release, the Bacon Raton company said the Coos Bay line “just doesn’t have enough business on it to justify us making the repairs,” but added that the line could be reopened if a shipping container terminal could be built.
In the weeks that followed, the company revealed that it had known about unsafe tunnel conditions cited as the reasons for the shutdown for at least a year, which led critics to question the company’s “emergency” declaration.
To them, RailAmerica’s decision sounded less like an embargo and more like a complete abandonment of the line. But abandonment requires more notice, government approval and spending money to remove the line’s infrastructure, state Sen. Joanne Verger said.
“Abandonment means they have the responsibility for paying for all the dismantling of those bridges and everything that has to do with that line,” Verger said.
Since the shutdown, Verger and other lawmakers have been pressing the company to justify its embargo and to set a date for repairing and reopening the line. Instead, RailAmerica has asked for a taxpayer bailout, not only for the $2.9 million needed for tunnel repairs but also for another $20 million in improvements to the three tunnels.
The company sought $4.66 million from each of four entities: the state of Oregon, the Oregon International Port of Coos Bay, a consortium of shippers on the line, and Union Pacific Railroad Co., CORP’s connecting rail carrier.
Led by Gov. Ted Kulongoski, the groups balked at the proposal, insisting that RailAmerica fix the tunnels with its own money and reopen the line. The two sides remain at a standstill.
The Surface Transportation Board’s notice recounts the six-month saga with a few pointed observations.
RailAmerica “has continued to indicate that it will not repair the three tunnels that precipitated the shutdown until it has secured funding for the additional work,” the order says.
Federal law requires rail carriers to provide service upon reasonable request, allowing for temporary suspensions if the carrier is incapable of providing service due to weather or flood damage, tunnel deterioration or operating restrictions caused by traffic congestion.
“But a carrier is not given a free pass to choose not to serve just because of circumstances that make it difficult or expensive to provide service,” the order says.
Even if the embargo were lawful or justified at the time it was issued, the law that allows a shutdown also requires rail companies to reopen embargoed lines in a timely fashion or abandon them.
RailAmerica’s actions “suggest that CORP’s embargo of the line, although it may have been reasonable when imposed, may have gone on for so long that it may have become an unlawful abandonment,” the board said.
The tough talk was lauded Friday by Kulongoski and by Rep. Peter DeFazio, who have been pressuring the transportation board and RailAmerica for a speedy solution to the problem.
“The STB’s decision supports what I’ve told RailAmerica,” the governor said in a news release. “Fix the railroad and get freight moving.”
DeFazio pointed out that the company recently entered into an agreement with pop singer Michael Jackson that will help him come up with the $24.5 million he needed to keep the Neverland Ranch in California from going to auction last month.
“If they can afford $24 million for Neverland, they can afford $20 million to fix their tunnels and put this critical public asset back on line,” DeFazio said.
RailAmerica officials did not return phone calls seeking comment Friday.
HeeHeeeeee 
