Firm has edge on winning rail line lease

YAKIMA, Wash. -- It appears a new firm will be selected to operate the 22-mile Toppenish to White Swan rail line, the subject of a controversial tug of war when the current lease was granted four years ago.

Two firms, including the current operator, have submitted proposals to operate the line the next 10 years.

But only one, a new entrant, is offering to pay the county any money for the right to deliver and pick up rail cars destined for the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad main line.

The current operator, Central Washington Railroad, a subsidiary of Columbia Basin Railroad, offered to pay nothing in its proposal, citing a decline in business on the line. The decline, a drop from about 3,000 cars in 2005 to an estimate of fewer than 700 this year, makes payment uneconomical, according to the firm's proposal.

Yakama Forest Products, the tribal-owned sawmill at White Swan, is the largest customer of the rail line.

The new applicant, W&I Railway, a subsidiary of the Burbank, Wash.-based Frontier Rail, proposed to pay Yakima County $12,000 per year.

County commissioners reviewed the two proposals during a study session Monday with county engineer Gary Ekstedt and Kent McHenry, the county's traffic engineering manager.

Commissioners will hold a public hearing on the pending 10-year lease at 8 a.m. Nov. 16 at the First Street Conference Center, at North First Street and Lincoln Avenue.

Ekstedt said he will make a recommendation to commissioners during the Nov. 16 hearing. With the county's primary interest that it receive income from the lease, it's likely Ekstedt will recommend W&I receive the lease.

McHenry said the drop in the number of cars is the result of the economic downturn's effect on the demand for lumber. Traffic also declined after the operator of a business that delivered cattle feed moved his firm to the Tri-Cities.

Yakima County has owned the line since 1992 when the state moved to salvage the line from abandonment. At that time, a nonprofit Toppenish group, the Yakima Valley Rail and Steam Museum, began operating the line. A growth in business prompted the museum to create a for-profit entity, the Toppenish Simcoe and Western Railroad, to operate the line.

The September 2005 decision by commissioners to provide the lease to Columbia Basin Railroad angered museum supporters.

A Yakima County Superior Court judge later rejected the museum's challenge to the award, concluding its appeal was filed late.

* David Lester can be reached at 509-577-7674 or dlester@yakimaherald.com.