At issue: Who should pay for crossing protection

For as long as anyone can remember, a railroad track has run down the middle of Albany’s Water Avenue. Now the city council is asking a court to declare that a long-expired franchise allowing this is still in effect.

If it is, the railroad might have to pay for the cost of any crossing gates along a section of Water Avenue where big development plans are in the works.

The city filed suit April 29 in Linn County Circuit Court against the Burlington Northern Santa Fe, which owns the track, and the Portland & Western Railroad, which leases and uses it.

A regional spokesman for BNSF, Gus Melonas in Seattle, said the company had no comment on the action.

The suit also names the Union Pacific but doesn’t explain why.

The city is seeking a court ruling saying that a 1981 franchise covering the track remains in effect even though it expired in 1986 and was not renegotiated.

The 1981 agreement granted the railroad — first the Oregon Electric and then the Burlington Northern and its successors — the right to use the street for railroad operations. It also required the company to bear any costs of crossing protection if it becomes necessary.

City Manager Wes Hare said Monday the city had been trying to get the railroad to respond to a request to renew the franchise, without luck.

“We’re asking the court to compel the railroad to respond,” he said.

Uncertainty about the railroad issue and crossing costs, Hare said, “is starting to affect the potential for development.”

The 1981 franchise authorized passenger and freight operations, but passenger service on the Oregon Electric ended in 1933, when the track followed a different route, according to a presentation at the Albany Regional Museum Saturday.

The franchise limits trains to 20 mph on the Water Avenue line. Freights now go less than 10 mph.

Developments being planned between the Water Avenue track and the Willamette River include the 162-unit, $28 million Edgewater Village on the site of a former packing plant; the $4-8 million Wheelhouse restaurant and office complex on the site of the former Buzz Saw restaurant; and a 34-unit residential complex where the Senders grain elevator was razed.

East of Hill Street, the rail line runs down the middle of Water Avenue. West of there, the line runs along the river side of the traffic lanes.