Royal port trying to reopen rail

ROYAL CITY — The Port of Royal Slope recently applied for $1.5 million in stimulus money to replace rotten railroad ties and reopen 26 miles of railroad line near Royal City.

Port of Royal Slope Commissioner Alan Schrom said Tuesday the number of Royal City businesses expanded.

Railroad became more attractive to the businesses when gas increased to $4 per gallon.

An area stone company, a packing facility and a new cherry processing plant expressed interest in rail, he commented.

“I think we could muster 800 to 1,000 cars per year,” Schrom said.

Businesses currently ship products by truck through the Royal City area.

Schrom said the port hopes to become part of an effort to increase shipping from the Puget Sound to the east.

To do so, another line needs to be opened across the state because the Stevens Pass line is completely utilized, he said.

“The best way to do that is to restore the Milwaukee line from Ellensburg to Lind,” Schrom commented. “We’re working on that angle.? There’s already 

a line from Lind to Spokane, which goes from the Tri-Cities to Spokane.”

Trains currently have to travel through the Yakima River Canyon. A route from Ellensburg to Lind is “quite a shortcut,” he noted.

The port is open to all possibilities regarding who would run the service, he explained.

If the port received state funding, it’s likely the Columbia Basin Railroad would provide service as it serves Othello, Schrom remarked.

Before the Royal City area line last closed, Schrom said the local route was operated by the port from 1983 to 1984 to about 1992 to 1993.

The line closed and the state Department of Transportation agreed to assume the port’s loan for the line, pay it off and assume ownership.

Before the port operated the line, it was ran by the Milwaukee Railroad, which left the state in 1980, Schrom explained.

The route made up a portion of the Milwaukee Railroad’s main line, in which passengers and freight were hauled from Chicago to Seattle, he said.