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Oregon's Coos Bay Rail Link, shown here in green, connects Coos Bay to Eugene's rail access and Interstate 5. Current discussions around coal exports are playing into the future of the rail link.
After four years on hiatus, what’s now termed the Coos Bay Rail Link reopened for business last fall, and even at a sluggish 10 mph, the sight of locomotives lumbering through the Coast Range is a welcome one to businesses that ship freight to and from the central and southern Oregon Coast.
The Port of Coos Bay … would also like to keep beefing up the tracks, too: more speed equals lower costs, and better viability for businesses bidding on faraway contracts where high shipping rates can bounce them out of first place in a highly competitive process.
That’s where the discussion gets controversial, because the easiest way to bring the line up to snuff for bigger and faster trains is to get private industry to finance the costs, which could reach $180 million.
And the private industry that is now first in line is a coalition of companies that want to export coal, hauling in via the rail line to Coos Bay for shipment to China.
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