Tulare County, the cities of Lindsay and Porterville and the community of Strathmore are hoping to derail an effort to tear out 9 miles of track between Exeter and Strathmore along Highway 65.

In a letter dated Nov. 2 and addressed to Allen Ishida, Chairman of the Tulare County Board of Supervisors, the San Joaquin Valley Railroad stated it would be filing a petition to abandon 9.20 miles of rail line between mileposts just south of Exeter and the heart of Strathmore.

“Right now we are in a transition back to rail,” Ishida said. “With concerns of air quality and traffic, more industries are taking a look at rail for hauling and shipping. We also want to protect rail for the future, such as connecting light rail to a high-speed rail.”

A duplicate letter was also sent to Lindsay Mayor Pro-Tem Pam Kimball, as well as the National Geodetic Survey, California Office of Planning and Research, California EPA, California Office of Historic Preservation, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Army Corpse of Engineers and National Park Service.

Attached to the letters was an environment report stating that SJVR wants to salvage the track and materials, such as the solid steel rails. SJVR's environmental reports estimates that the loss of rail could result in an additional 50 trucks on area roads, bad news for the San Joaquin Valley where bad air quality gets worse each year.

At its Nov. 27 meeting, the Lindsay City Council approved a resolution opposing the abandonment for economic reasons, citing Lindsay Foods LLC as a major business in town which depends on the rail to ship its frozen foods and the increased truck traffic and air pollution by putting more trucks on the road.

“Abandoning rail is irresponsible, even if it is not viable today,” said Lindsay City Planner Bill Zigler. “We are in a serious non-attainment area for air quality and we don't know what needs we might have in the future.”

Paul Saldana, president and CEO of the Tulare County Economic Development Corporation (EDC), said the cities of Visalia and Porterville have also passed resolutions opposing the abandonment.

“Visalia doesn't want the extra traffic through its downtown and there are rumors that the railroad will also try to abandon 30.2 miles or rail between Strathmore and Ducor in the south county,” Saldana said. “We have also heard that this is piecemeal effort that might also lead to the abandonment of the northern portion of the track between Exeter and Dinuba. If one is approved, the rest might fall in line.”

On Nov. 28, Saldana called a closed meeting in Porterville of city and county leaders, rail experts and businesses who currently use or have used commercial rail to discuss ways to prevent the loss of the track.

Saldana said that in the last year, 25% of the company's looking to locate in Tulare County are requesting sites with rail access, “a significant increase” of the normal of 0-5% of companies.

“With the price of gas continuing to rise, rail becomes more affordable every year,” Saldana said.

SJVR is currently owned by RailAmerica, Inc. Based in Boca Raton, Florida, RailAmerica operates 41 short line and regional railroads along 7,800 miles of track in 25 states and three Canadian provinces.

The Tulare Valley Railroad Company (TVR) already tried to purchase 30.99 miles of track between Exeter and Ducor in June of this year. TVR asserted that SJVR refused to provide adequate service to shippers served on the line and that transportation was inadequate for the majority of shippers. TVR estimated the track and materials were worth an estimated $2 million. However, the sell was not approved by the Surface Transportation Board, an economic regulatory agency that Congress charged with the fundamental missions of resolving railroad disputes and reviewing proposed railroad mergers.

The project was opposed by SJVR and Union Pacific, which owns the land and 100-foot right-of-way on which the line runs. UP valued the right-of-way to be worth an estimated $8.3 million.

According to SJVR, the track was completed in 1897 by the San Francisco and San Joaquin Valley Railroad. A year later, it was purchased by Atchison, Topeka and Sante Fe Railway Company. Eventually, the rail was purchased by Southern Pacific and Kyle Railways in 1992. States Rail acquired Kyle in 1997 and then States Rail was purchased by RailAmerica in 2002.

Locally, the project was opposed by the Tulare County Association of Governments (TCAG), a quasi-governmental group that oversees transportation projects in the county.

TCAG is currently planning a trip to Washington, D.C. in February to formally oppose the abandonment.

Print this story

Email this story

Return to Index