Railroad operator interviews this Friday

ROYAL CITY – Port of Royal Slope Executive Director Cathy Potter and PORS Commissioner Alan Schrom said last week they are confident the Port will have an operating railroad in the near future.

The commissioners have set up interviews with officials of the two companies that have proposed to run the Royal Slope Railroad. They will occur this Friday, Sept. 18.

Potter said the Port expects to be able to announce the chosen operator shortly afterward. Schrom said the ownership groups of the two bidders are “very serious” in wanting to operate the railroad.

One proposal is from Frontier Rail, and the other is from Eastern Washington Gateway Railroad.

“We have so much potential here for business growth,” Potter said. “Right now, there are two companies from outside the area planning on locating here. Having rail access was one of their requirements.”

Another company, BRC Holdings of Puyallup, planned to start operating yesterday. It too was waiting for decisions about rail service.

That company is going to move lentils and other farm commodities from Idaho to Royal for distribution around the state. The owner plans to move product to the PORS by truck until rail service is in place.

Frontier Rail Corporation was founded in 2006 and, after nine years of growth, the Frontier Rail Group of affiliate carriers maintains and operates 250 miles of railroad in four states.

Frontier Rail Corporation also operates non-carrier services at 12 locations in seven states – including railcar switching, car repair, trans-loading and railhead marketing/logistics services. FRC's office is located in Burbank.

Eastern Washington Gateway Railroad, which is a subsidiary of US Rail Partners Ltd., was incorporated in 2007 and operates the 108-mile “CW Sub” from a connection with BNSF from Cheney to Coulee City.

The Eastern Washington Gateway management team comes with almost 200 years of combined railroad operating experience.

The PORS anticipates making an announcement of an operator on Sept. 22.

Schrom said the company that is selected to run the Royal Slope Railroad will take all of the rail-shipping revenue as well as do all railroad maintenance.

He noted that the company that ran the same railroad in years past collected all of the revenue while the PORS paid for all the maintenance.