Train Excursion To Enlist Buses

Sat., May 22, 1999

From Staff

Buses will close a gap in an excursion train ride planned July 3-4 between Newport and Sandpoint.

Spokesman Brian Orr said the sponsoring Newport-Oldtown Rotary Club will provide bus service between Sandpoint and the Dover siding 3-1/2 miles outside the city so passengers won’t have to wait for freight trains.

“It will still be a nice trip,” Orr said. “It will give people about a 25-mile trip down the Pend Oreille River, which is gorgeous.”

Most of the sightseeing route is controlled by the Pend Oreille Valley Railroad, which will operate the excursion train, but the Dover-Sandpoint section is used by the Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway Co.

“There could have been long delays sitting on the siding waiting for a mainline freight to go through,” Orr said.

He said the Dover-Sandpoint connection, probably with school buses, won’t add to the $10 cost of a one-way ticket or significantly affect the approximate two-hour-and-45-minute length of the trip.

For tickets or more information, call the Sandpoint Chamber of Commerce at 1-800-800-2106 or send e-mail to susan@sandpoint.net.

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