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The Oregon International Port of Coos Bay will receive $8 million from the fiscal-year 2009 omnibus appropriations bill to help fund the purchase of a rail line from the Central Oregon & Pacific Railroad Inc. (CORP).

The port plans to purchase a 111-mile segment of the Coos Bay Line between Danebo and Cordes, Ore., for more than $16 million.

Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), who chairs the House Highways and Transit Subcommittee, helped secure the federal funds. Combined with $4 million in state funding from the Oregon Transportation Commission and proceeds from a recent Oregon Economic and Community Development Department loan, the port will have enough funds to purchase the line, DeFazio said in a prepared statement.

"The rail line is vital to the economy of the south coast,” he said. “Several major employers in the area depend on the rail line to get their goods to market.”

In September 2007, CORP closed the Coos Bay Line because the short line determined three tunnels posed a safety risk to operations and were too costly to repair, and the line's traffic had declined significantly. The state then fought CORP’s and parent RailAmerica Inc.'s plan to close the line permanently and encouraged the Surface Transportation Board (STB) to accept the port’s proposal to purchase a portion of the line. In November 2008, the STB provided the port an opportunity to purchase the line for $16.6 million.

The average shipper along the shut-down line now pays 10 percent to 15 percent more in transportation costs because they have to ship their freight by truck, said DeFazio.

“The shut down [also] has caused the loss of hundreds of jobs to local communities,” he said.