Federal board orders talks for future of rail line
There’s new hope that the historic railroad line from Oneida to Devonia in Scott, Campbell and remote Anderson County might be saved from the scrap heap.
The U.S. Surface Transportation Board last week ordered that the rail line’s current owner, Kentucky-based R.J. Corman Railroad, and the company trying to buy and preserve it enter into mediation to try to come to an agreement for Arkansas-Oklahoma Railroad Co. to take over the nearly 42-mile line.
Although the STB rejected an emergency stay of its earlier order allowing R.J. Corman to proceed with plans to abandon the line and remove the tracks, the board did receive assurances from R.J. Corman that it had no immediate plans to take up the line.
Anderson County Mayor Terry Frank, who also is chair of the Northeast Tennessee Railroad Authority, has been working with leaders of Scott and Campbell counties to try to preserve the rail line for economic development opportunities.
“I believe it is very positive news,” Frank said of the STB order sending the issue to mediation. “R.J. Corman presented to the STB that they were not removing the track and that any belief that removal of the track was imminent was false.
“The STB denied the petition for a stay,” she said. “However, the STB noted in their decision that they expect RJC will maintain consistency with their representation and ‘take no action to remove the track’ while the board considers the petition for reconsideration of [an appeal order]” filed by Arkansas-Oklahoma Railroad and the local rail authority, which has nearly $2 million invested in the line.
“Meanwhile, they have ordered mediation, and the STB chairman will appoint a mediator or mediators,” Frank said. “I am extremely, exceedingly happy about this decision. It gives us hope that we may be able to keep the line in our community for economic development, as well as alleviating some of the timber traffic on our roadways.”
U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, R-Tenn., recently contacted the STB to help in the local campaign to save the historic railroad line, which dates to 1889.
The congressman wrote a letter to the three members of the STB asking them to reconsider their recent decision to deny an appeal seeking to overturn the board’s earlier decision to allow the line to be permanently closed and removed.
In the letter, Fleischmann said:
“I am writing in support of preserving the forty-one miles of railroad line located in Scott, Campbell, and Anderson Counties, Tennessee, and I ask that you thoughtfully review the reconsideration petition from the North East Tennessee Rail Authority and the Arkansas-Oklahoma Railroad Company to allow for the purchase of this line owned by R.J. Corman (RJC).
“The projected business plan for this line, along with efforts to add new shippers, will have a positive annual economic impact. However, the abandonment and removal of the line in theses rural counties would have a negative impact on the local communities and damage their prospects for growth and development.
“Additionally, removal of the line would jeopardize any future utilization of energy reserves in these areas and eliminate Tennessee jobs,” he wrote.
On Oct. 13, the local proponents of efforts to save the rail line filed that appeal with the STB to try to overturn the board’s Sept. 25 decision — in a 2-1 vote — that would have allowed for immediate removal of the tracks and a permanent closing of the line.
The board has not yet acted on that appeal, but has ordered mediation for up to 30 days in the meantime.
The line has been used extensively for coal and timber operations in the region, but trains last ran on the tracks in 2013, when a coal mine at Devonia shut down.