Gateway to Oregon's grapevines

A local group hopes to make Sherwood the first stop on a wine tourism train.

By Anthony Roberts

The Sherwood Gazette, Jul 27, 2006, Updated Oct 30, 2009

ADVERTISEMENTS

<< Prev. Page 1 | 2

But even if work on the track is not extensive, there is currently no place along the line right now to permanently house the train and do repair work if it were running. Several towns would also need to look into building some sort of train platform.

Portland and Western in Salem owns the track. They don’t currently don’t use the section of track the wine train would use, and they did operate the Lewis and Clark train. Still, the group typically operates freight trains.

Perhaps the biggest cost issue, however, focuses on insurance liability. Most freight carriers, George and Patterson admit, would be reluctant to get involved with a passenger train, even before the recent Oregon Supreme Court ruling striking down insurance caps for state agencies. The ruling essentially struck down any type of shield law that put caps on jury awards.

“We took a hit with that ruling,” George admitted.

Still, he’s optimistic. George said he spoke with a representative from the trial lawyers association who suggested some sort of cap for specific use might be agreeable under certain terms.

“You can make a profit off running these trains. Public transportation is subsidized, tourism trains make money,” George said. Though he did mention that a wine tourism train could eventually lead officials to consider light rail in the mid-valley area.

The state senator has put in a call to the governor’s office, and hopes it might consider not selling the Lewis and Clark train. In addition to the Yamhill County train, he said there are other old rail corridors like Corvallis to Newport and Medford to Ashland where people are interested in a tourist train. He suggested the train could be provided to each for a limited time for trial runs, and to see if there is a serious demand.

In spite of all the obstacles, Patterson believes conditions are ripe for a wine train, and he believes that with its unique location just before the beginning of the mid-valley wineries, Sherwood could be its starting point.

“Many of those wine companies have built beautiful wine tasting facilities and their properties have now become a destination location, they’re encouraging peopled to come to their properties,” he said. “It’s not that we’re creating a new idea, we’re considering a new mode of transportation to get folks there.”

<< Prev. Page 1 | 2