All aboard the Spirit of Washington
Matthew Weaver/Columbia Basin HeraldFormer senator Joyce Mulliken, back to camera, City of Moses Lake Administrator Joe Gavinski and Moses Lake City Councilmember Jon Lane enjoy lunch aboard the Spirit of Washington. The dinner train was in Moses Lake as part of a tour for state and area leaders to look over the Columbia Basin Railroad's need to improve the track.
GRANT COUNTY - Area transportation leaders and decision makers got to see the need for improved rail in Moses Lake by riding aboard existing railroad track.
Columbia Basin Railroad and the Port of Moses Lake offered the railroad's dinner train, the Spirit of Washington, for the area legislators and leaders to see the condition of the existing rail line from the Wheeler Road corridor to the port property around Grant County International Airport.
The dinner train was in Moses Lake for the first time Monday.
On board were Rep. Judy Warnick, R-Moses Lake, Rep. Bill Hinkle, R-Cle Elum, Sen. Jan/a Holmquist, R-Moses Lake, members of the Washington State Transportation Commission, and various city officials and community leaders.
The tour began in the Wheeler corridor in view of the REC Silicon facility, continued down along Wheeler Road and crossed State Route 17 and beneath Interstate 90, ending in the McDonald area south of Moses Lake.
The train could not be taken to downtown Moses Lake because of the rating of the track, organizers told the audience aboard the train.
By van, various tour members also drove past some of the industries in the port's industrial area in need of rail,
including Genie Industries, Takata and Moses Lake Industries.
Rep. Judy Warnick, Grant County Economic Development Council Communications and Research Manager Jon Smith and Grant County Public Works Director Derek Pohle all addressed the participants on the train. Smith shared growth numbers for the county and cited the need for infrastructure to attract businesses into the area.
Pohle addressed the complexity of the Grant County road system.
Ford said following the tour there is work to be done on the track.
It's important for the commission to see the industrial growth in the area, but if the area is going to continue to grow, the commission needs to determine where to find the resources, he said.
It was also important to get some of the traffic off the roads and onto rail, Ford added.
"Rail, in terms of fuel consumption, is so much more efficient than trucks," he said.
The tour ended with a briefing by the port district at the airport.