The State of Washington is asking eastern Washingtonians to do some brainstorming about how to run its railroad. The state Department of Transportation is not just about roads and bridges and traffic cameras.
Since 2007, the state has owned nearly 300 miles of track in eastern Washington, most of it sloughed off by big railroads as they consolidated and got rid of unprofitable branches. But the lines were important to grain growers - thousands of them - to get their crops to market.
Up until this year, transportation department officials concentrated on mundane work the big railroads had refused to do for years - ripping up and replacing rotten old ties and track, repairing bridges and crossings, fencing off rights of way.
But now that the infrastructure is up to snuff, transportation department planners aim to come up with a strategic plan for the Palouse River and Coulee City Railroad. That's where the public brainstorming comes in.
Three planning workshops this fall and winter - one of them in Spokane - will elicit ideas for physical and operational improvements.
It's estimated the state-owned railroad ships about 20 percent of Washington's grain crop, keeping 3,000 big trucks off the highways.
