The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

DAYTON—The Port of Columbia is just days away from signing a lease agreement with a new rail operator. Port officials plan for Frontier Rail, LLC to take over rail operations from WATCO, the current rail operator.

Frontier will repair the lines and bridges so that the Port-owned short line between Dayton and Walla Walla can be reopened and begin moving Columbia County products to distant markets, Port officials said.

Paul Didelius, the Commercial Director of Frontier Rail, attended last week’s Port meeting to help clarify some language issues in the proposed lease agreement, and to speak about the timeline for the transition.

“It will move swiftly,” Didelius said. “WATCO is turning around on their end. It is moving smoothly.”

Didelius said that once the commissioners sign the lease, the rail transportation board will be notified.

He said that WATCO will be out of the picture thirty days from the time of filing, but that WATCO will allow Frontier workers onto the property to begin work in the meantime. Frontier Rail will begin making repairs to eight bridges and the thirty-nine miles of track, he said.

After the repairs have been made, service will be reinstated, and Didelius will begin helping the Port to build a customer base, he said.

“When the rails are shiny, it creates momentum. That’s been our experience,” he told the commissioners.

Port Manager Jennie Dickinson said a special meeting will be called when the lease is ready for the commissioners to sign.

Dickinson said that Port Attorney Kim Boggs is currently reviewing the lease, with the help of an attorney with the Port of Kennewick. After clarifying some language concerns about maintenance and rehabilitation, Dickinson said she is confident the agreement will be solid.

Dickinson also told the commissioners that the state has set aside one million dollars for rail projects, with a 45-day application time frame.

“We hope to get in on that,” she said about the necessity to get the lease signed in a timely manner.

The Port has also been awarded a second grant from the Rail Bank, for a siding at Blue Mountain Station, Dickinson said.

Talks with Union Pacific, which owns the line from Walla Walla to Wallula, and with WATCO were begun by Frontier in July of last year.

Union Pacific turned the Palouse and Coulee City line over to the Port of Columbia in 1996, but it has not been used for rail traffic since 2013, according to Port officials.