Washington DOT continues to advance trackwork for state-owned short line
10/14/2025
By Jeff Stagl, Managing Editor
In the state of Washington, 27 short lines are among the railroads that operate 3,200 miles of track statewide. And the longest short line in terms of trackage is the Palouse River and Coulee City (PCC) rail system, which is owned by the state.
Stretching more than 300 miles, the PCC rail system is divided into three branch lines running through Adams, Grant, Lincoln, Spokane and Whitman counties. The short line primarily moves agricultural products and interchanges with BNSF Railway and Union Pacific Railroad.
The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) has contracted the following railroads as operators for each line:
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the Palouse River & Coulee City Railroad (owned by Watco), for the 121-mile PV Hooper Branch between Hooper, Winona and Thornton;
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Washington Eastern Railroad (owned by Jaguar Transport), for the 115-mile CW Branch between Chaney and Coulee City; and
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Spokane, Spangle and Palouse Railway (an Omaha Track Inc. subsidiary), for the 68-mile P&L Branch between Marshall and Fallon.
In addition to managing all the state-owned track, WSDOT is overseeing major infrastructure upgrades along the PCC system. A more than $100 million, three-pronged project that began in 2021 has barely reached the halfway point.
Grade crossing improvements also are part of the PCC rail system upgrades, which won’t be completed until 2030.Washington State Department of TransportationCompleted in 2022, phase 1 involved upgrades to all three branch lines. The work included replacing or rehabilitating 10 bridges, rehabbing 28 miles of track and replacing 1 mile of rail. Phase 1 was funded by a $5.7 million Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development program grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation, $5.3 million from the state and $335,000 from local sources.
Now underway, phase 2 is a much more heavily involved — and costly — portion of the overall project. In September 2023, WSDOT was awarded a $72.8 million federal Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) program grant for the work, which will be combined with $39.2 million in state, local and private funds.
Broken into projects 1, 2 and 3, phase 2 calls for replacing lightweight worn rail and old ties, rebuilding grade crossings and surfacing track.
Project 1 work on the CW Branch from Cheney to Davenport began in June and is slated to be completed by August 2026, said Ryan Ragaza-Bourassa, WSDOT’s PCC railway manager, in an email.
Construction bids for phase 2/project 2 work on the P&L Branch from Marshall to Garfield will be advertised in early November, he said.
“The plans are under review. After project 2 is advertised, we will start the plans, specifications and estimate process for project 3 on the PV Hooper Branch from Hooper to Winona and from Winona to St. John.”
Meanwhile, phase 3 work on the CW Branch from Davenport to Wilbur is projected to start in 2028 after all the CRISI grant-funded work is completed. Completion is anticipated in 2030.
WSDOT was awarded an additional $37.7 million federal grant in November 2024 for phase 3 and is working with the Federal Railroad Administration to obligate the project funding, said Ragaza-Bourassa.
“Once the obligation is approved, the PCC Rail Office will start developing plans, special provisions and the estimate,” he said.
Under the last phase, new 115-pound rail will replace 100-year-old worn rail to accommodate 286,000-pound rail cars. The upgrades will enable track speeds to be increased from 10 mph to 25 mph so agricultural products can be transported more quickly to national and international markets, according to WSDOT.
Maintaining the branch lines will help farmers access better rail service to transport their goods to regional and international customers, WSDOT officials say. All the work will substantially rehabilitate the PCC rail system, with a significant portion reaching a state of good repair, they say.
