Officials OK Funds to Get Railroad Moving Again

State and federal officials agreed Wednesday to deliver $10 million to $12 million in disaster relief to the embattled Northwestern Pacific railroad, a move hailed by rail supporters along the state’s North Coast as a guarantee that the historic line will be back on track by next spring.

The 85-year-old railroad--which runs from Arcata in Humboldt County to Schellville in Sonoma County--last November became the first rail line in U.S. history to be shut down by the federal government for chronic safety violations.

But Northwestern Pacific officials said Wednesday that the long-awaited funds will enable the line to make the necessary track repairs and lift the order.

“This is a monumental event. It can only be described in those terms,” said Allan Hemphill, chairman of the North Coast Rail Authority, a collection of volunteers who run the publicly owned rail line. “It means we’re back in business.”

Wednesday’s developments followed an agreement that railroad officials reached last week with the state of California to drop a lawsuit filed against the rail line in December. The suit accused the line of polluting the scenic Eel River, a habitat for the endangered coho salmon.

More than $18 million in debt, the Northwestern Pacific will continue repairs along the 318-mile line that were stymied when contractors balked at not being paid.

“The contractors needed the guarantee of this money before they started working again,” Hemphill said. “They’d been bruised because we just could not afford to pay them. Now we can.”

Officials from the Federal Railroad Administration, which had ordered the line closed, said the funds should help railroad officials meet the agency’s requirements for reopening.

“Hopefully the railroad will settle its affairs with that money and bring itself into compliance with federal regulations,” said agency spokesman Warren Flatua. “Right now we can’t say when we’ll lift the closure order, but they’ve come a long way and have made some real effort to that end.”

In its closure order, the agency cited unsafe conditions that included dozens of broken crossing signals, some in densely populated areas. The line had also neglected repairs to track, bridges and drainage structures, officials said.

Along with U.S. 101, the Northwestern Pacific is one of two economic lifelines to penetrate the redwood curtain, the ancient wall of forest that isolates the region even today. The rail line meanders through some of the most rain-soaked terrain in the United States, including the banks of the scenic Russian and Eel rivers. Washouts along the Eel have frequently closed the line’s most-troubled northern 150 miles, from Willits to Arcata.

Since 1997, state and federal officials had delayed payment of disaster relief money sought by the rail line over concerns that its accounting procedures were unprofessional and that it could not explain how previous funding was spent.

But officials said those concerns were behind them. “The railroad is an essential part of California’s economy,” said Dallas Jones, director of the governor’s Office of Emergency Services, which administers disaster funds paid by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. “This funding will be crucial in [the railroad’s] viability as a transportation entity.”

North Coast business leaders and city officials cheered Wednesday’s developments.

Long reliant on the freight line to move timber and other bulk commodities, many of the region’s businesses have been left to seek other ways of getting products to market, such as more expensive ocean barges.

“We’re ecstatic,” said David Schneider, who recently built a pier on Humboldt Bay, along with a $100,000 rail spur, hoping to begin importing products from the Far East. “Now, enough talk. Let’s get the railroad open. Here we are in the heat of summer and we could be shipping most of our product right now on that line. We’re ready to go.”

Gordon Logan, city manager of Willits, which has lent the rail line nearly $1 million to help pay its bills, says he can’t wait to once again hear the wail of the locomotive’s whistle as the freight trains move through his community.

“Those trains bring a breath of fresh air to this region’s economy,” he said. “They allow us to move bulk loads of timber and rock that are just too expensive to move by truck, loads so heavy they play hell with the roads. This is just great news.”

According to the agreement announced Wednesday, Northwestern Pacific can use the disaster funds to repair 130 sites along the line.

But federal officials stressed that rail officials could not use the money for landslide stabilization along the Eel River. In the past, FEMA officials have balked at shelling out money year after year to make repairs along the same stretch of track.

“That was the deal,” Hemphill said. “We have six sites along that river that represent 90% of our landslides along the entire line and give us the most headaches. But we’ve agreed to take responsibility to shore up those hillsides with money we’ll seek from other sources, so FEMA doesn’t have to foot that bill.”

Ruth Rockefeller, an 81-year-old retired teacher and veteran member of the rail line’s governing board, said officials would seek funding from the California Department of Transportation to shore up the landslide areas. “They’ve done a lot of work with landslide stabilization in this region,” she said. “They have to, in order to keep U.S. 101 open all year around.”

Hemphill said last week’s settlement with the state also paves the way for a healthy operating railroad. State officials said that in return for dropping the suit, the rail line agreed to clean up several sites along the Eel River polluted by chemicals and discarded rail cars. The line also must prevent future pollution.

“We promised to be good,” Hemphill said. “We will not do the things previous owners of this railroad have done. And we’ll actively seek funding to begin cleaning past messes.”

Hemphill said the rail line could now begin work to retrieve 11 carloads of lumber stranded in the forest last year by a washout. The cars, known by locals as the Island Mountain ghost train, have been a symbol of the rail line’s frustrations and money woes.

“Finally,” said Hemphill, “the Island Mountain ghost train is going to be rescued.”