Shuttle train facility to serve grain growers

ROSALIA, Wash. – The way Dick Hatterman sees it, the Palouse is an agricultural powerhouse because of good soil and good weather.

Both commodities were in abundant supply Wednesday during the groundbreaking ceremony for the McCoy shuttle train loading facility.

Located along state Route 271 just east of here, the $17 million project is designed to fill 110-car shuttle trains with about 410,000 bushels of grain in less than nine hours. It’s expected to be completed in time for the 2013 harvest.

Shuttle trains are the preferred method for shipping grain because operators don’t lose time handling and consolidating smaller numbers of rail cars into a single trainload. Consequently, producers and shippers benefit from lower fares.

“Commerce looks for efficiencies as a measure of performance, and shuttle trains are the answer to that,” said Hatterman, general manager of Cooperative Agricultural Producers Inc.

Co-Ag co-owns the McCoy facility together with Pacific Northwest Cooperative. In addition to several new grain storage tanks, it will include 11,500 feet of new rail line laid out in a tear-shaped configuration.

More than 100 people attended Wednesday’s ceremony, including a number of state and local officials.

“This project is a testament to your foresight,” said Dan Newhouse, director of the Washington State Department of Agriculture.

When it comes to major infrastructure projects, “we all stand on the shoulders of people who went before us,” Newhouse said. “Someone had to take the risks, make the investment, have the foresight to work for something better. In another generation, your kids and grandkids will be able to look back with gratitude at the vision you had today.”

The McCoy project could handle more than 16 million bushels per year, which would triple grain shipments along that segment of line from about 2,100 per year to more than 6,000.

Bill Newbry, general manager of Pacific Northwest Cooperative, said the closest similar facility is in Ritzville.

Federal tax credits will offset about $2.5 million of the cost, he said, but the remainder of the funding is coming from the two cooperatives.

“We’ll recoup that through profits on the terminal, and on merchandising and handling and storage,” Newbry said. “Both companies export product worldwide, under our own brands.”

The McCoy siding is located on the PandL short-line railroad, about 29 miles from the main Burlington Northern-Santa Fe line at Marshall.

Several bridges along that section will likely have to be upgraded to handle the heavy, 286,000-pound rail cars used in shuttle trains.

“We know we have some challenges,” said John Sibold, director of the Washington State Department of Transportation’s Marine and Rail Division. “There needs to be an ongoing program to replace ties and ballast, and a lot of the bridges were built in the 1940s and ’60s. We’ll be assessing them this year and taking that information to the Legislature.”

The state purchased the PandL line, together with two other short-line tracks, for $17.1 million in 2004 and 2007. Some people questioned the investment, Sibold said, “but we’ve learned if we give transportation (infrastructure) away, at some point we realize we want it back.”

It’s estimated the McCoy project could generate more than $72 million in transportation savings over the next 20 years, plus another $14 million in reduced road damage and accidents since the grain won’t have to be transported by truck.

Rep. Susan Fagan, R-Pullman, said it will be a struggle getting state funding for the needed bridge improvements, but the financial commitment by local producers and the two co-ops should help.

“Doesn’t it tell you the locals are willing to make an investment?” she said. “They aren’t just holding their hands out asking for money.”