By Mary Owen
The prospect of cutting service south of Mount Angel by a short-haul, family-owned railway could negatively impact local businesses and the community, according to city officials.
“The rail line runs from the Union Pacific main line in Woodburn, through Mount Angel, Silverton, Aumsville and ends up in Stayton,” said Dan Fleishman, director of planning and development for the city of Stayton.
The Willamette Valley Railway is a short-line railroad, part of several lines operated by Mike and David Root.
The Woodburn to Stayton line was leased from the Southern Pacific Transportation Co. in February 1993 and was purchased by the brothers in 1996, according to Wikipedia.
“The line runs to the NORPAC Foods plant on West Washington Street, and there are a couple of spurs in the industrial park, serving Wilco’s Ag Center, Redbuilt and Blazer Industries,” Fleishman said.
“My understanding is that the only active customers in Stayton are Redbuilt and Wilco.”
According to Wilco’s CEO Doug Hoffman, the majority of the Stayton coop’s dry fertilizer comes via rail.
“That’s half our lot at this location,” Hoffman said.
Trucking in goods adds to costs, Hoffman said, but, “not enough to break the bank.
“As we ship all these trucks, we do put more wear and tear on our highways,” he added. “We shouldn’t have to do that.”
Plant manager Brian Cowan said Redbuilt definitely needs the railroad.
“We have 90 folks here at our operation, we’re building the business back again, and we’ll continue to grow,” Cowan said.
According to Cowan, Redbuilt is using a Salem rail spur until the Stayton line, closed due to damage from rains earlier this year, reopens.
“We don’t want to lose it,” Cowan said of the local line. “Once you lose the rail, it’s gone.”
Should the Willamette Valley Railway be permitted to terminate operations in Stayton, Fleishman said the two companies and the community would be greatly impacted.
“Though Blazer Industries isn’t currently using rail service, their spur has the potential for expansion to serve the Doezler property, 45 acres of vacant land zoned for industry,” Fleishman said.
“Should rail service cease, the current shipments into these facilities would then have to come by truck, adding traffic to our road system,” he said.
Fleishman attributed the possibility of track closure to two main factors: costs to maintain bridges and trestles along the 33.4 miles of track running from Woodburn to Stayton, and the steady decline of business over the past decade.
According information released in June 2011 by the Oregon Department of Transportation rail division, the Willamette Valley Railway shipped 2,034 rail cars for gross revenue of $720,000 in 2006.
In 2010, WVR’s shipments had fallen to only 783 cars for $466,000 of revenue.
The railroad’s revenues per mile of track were among the lowest of the short-line railways in the state that year, Fleishman said.
WVR’s owner Dave Root would like to make repairs to the currently closed local line and keep it open – if financially viable.
“At this time, there are just not enough car loads to pay for the line,” Root said. “We would need about 400, about $160,000 to $170,000 per year.
“Last year, we got about $80.000 of revenue from this line. Right now, we don’t see any increase, and we can’t maintain the lines without money.”
Additional bridge repairs along the Little Pudding River, between State Street and Macleay, as well as maintenance to Silverton’s bridge over Silver Creek add to WVR’s financial challenges, Root said.
“We’ve put in for a Connect Oregon grant to fix the bridges, but we’re not sure we will be funded,” he said.
“Money to paint Silverton’s bridge is just over $100,000. If we don’t get a grant, that will eat up our budget. Everything is multiplying.”
WVR has been approved for a matching grant of $60,000 from Connect Oregon for repairs to the local line, with the state picking up $45,000 of that amount, but no agreement has been entered into, Root said.
The bottom line is that for the past 30 years, there has been virtually no business between Mile Post 8 near State Street and Stayton, he said. Despite meetings with Union Pacific and the state of Oregon, the future of rail in the area looks grim, he added.
“It’s difficult for public agencies to want to get involved, due to tight budgets,” he said. “In all honesty, I think the line will be abandoned.”
A committee made up of government and business representatives has been meeting with Willamette Valley Railway to address some of the issues, Fleishman said.
“We hope to have more businesses move to town,” said City Administrator Don Eubank, who has attended several meetings. “They may need the rail, and we just don’t know yet what’s going to happen.”
Root expects a decision to be made within the next 30 to 60 days.
“By the end of June, we should know where we’re going,” he said.
