POST FALLS - As Bruce Kelly has watched railroad trends for more than 30 years, reliance on such transportation mode in Post Falls and Coeur d'Alene has dwindled.

That makes the Post Falls man and contributing editor of Railway Age magazine cringe.

"It's not so much a case of the rail industry needing to salvage economic conditions," Kelly said. "Railroads are already handling record-setting business for those companies, industries and communities that know how to salvage their own economies, and how to generate new business that takes advantage of the energy-efficient transportation which only rail can provide.

"BNSF would love to keep what's left of its Coeur d'Alene branch intact if there was more emphasis on the part of our local leaders to attract light industry and shipping to that track in and around Post Falls," Kelly said.

Kelly wrote an article entitled "No trains to Coeur d'Alene" in the November-December of "Railfan & Railroad" magazine that highlights how this area was once served by four branch lines when timber was king.

"To the readers of a magazine like 'Railfan & Railroad,' Coeur d'Alene has rarely been thought of as a railroad town, especially when compared to other nearby places like Spokane or Sandpoint," Kelly said. "But I knew Coeur d'Alene had a compelling story to tell. It was too far off the beaten path to become a key point along one of the main cross-country routes, but the fact that four separate companies were willing to build separate branch lines into Coeur d'Alene says something about the volume and importance of lumber, manufacturing and passenger business that this city was once known for."

The only surviving segment of the four branch lines that used to reach Coeur d'Alene is BNSF Railway's track that runs from Hauser to Huetter through Post Falls. Kelly said more of the branch will be abandoned if BNSF revamps its track in Post Falls as planned. The end of the track would be near Dairy Queen in Post Falls.

"Coeur d'Alene's branches are near and dear to my heart," Kelly said. "I hated seeing them go away."

Kelly said he has communicated with local leaders about the need to preserve and promote what is left of that branch.

"It's bad enough that some tremendous opportunities for good-paying jobs and local revenue growth were lost when the former mill properties along the Spokane River at Atlas and elsewhere were sold off and the rail lines removed, only to have that land now sit idle," Kelly said.

"But to see places like Moses Lake, Warden, Othello and the West Plains (in eastern Washington) thrive so well with new business growth, and not only in agriculture but also in high-tech support, manufacturing and aviation, it should have been a wake-up call to Coeur d'Alene and Post Falls that a branch line railroad is a lifeline to businesses far beyond our area's general reliance on retail, medical and service jobs."

For those who remember what it was like to see trains rumbling slowly down the middle of Mullan Avenue in Coeur d'Alene or railcars of lumber being hauled through town on a summer evening, there's a sense of nostalgia and loss, Kelly said.

"My wife and grown kids are used to hearing my complaints whenever we drive into Coeur d'Alene along Northwest Boulevard, with me pointing out all the places where trains used to run, where lumber used to be loaded, all of it now gone without a trace," he said. "But nostalgia alone cannot keep a spur line railroad running."

Kelly said BNSF and Union Pacific are moving enormous amounts of business through North Idaho, topped with oil from North Dakota heading to the West Coast. Hundreds of people are earning nice paychecks when they clock in at rail terminals like Hauser or at rail-related industries and construction projects along the way.

"But Coeur d'Alene has allowed itself to be disconnected from all of it," Kelly said.

The land at the former Atlas mill site could have been developed into light manufacturing, warehousing or even a transfer station for incoming lumber and other goods for local retail.

"Obviously, holding out for the next bubble in (Riverstone) or office development is getting that property nowhere," Kelly said.

Kelly said a common thread in the surge in job growth in places such as Quincy, Moses Lake, the Tri-Cities and West Plains is a branch or spur line rail service of which Coeur d'Alene once had more.

"Post Falls could keep hold of what's left of its BNSF branch line, and make it a prosperous lifeline for jobs and revenue, if it can learn a thing or two from those communities in central and eastern Washington that have embraced rail as a vital part of their business infrastructure," he said.

BNSF's biggest customer in Post Falls is Plummer Forest Products, which operates the former Potlatch Co. particleboard mill south of Seltice Way off North Potlatch Road.

BNSF also delivers occasional hopper cars full of plastic pellets for Interstate Plastic. Those cars get parked on a spur track a couple blocks southeast of Post Falls City Hall, and Interstate Plastic uses a vacuum-equipped truck to unload the plastic pellets from the railcars and drive them to the IP plant located on Seltice Way toward the east end of town.

Idaho Veneer, which is located just east of where those plastic pellet cars get unloaded, ships a limited amount of wood products via rail.

BNSF also has customers at Hauser, where the Coeur d'Alene branch connects with the BNSF northern corridor main line. Customers at Hauser include Idaho Asphalt Supply and the Aleris aluminum recycling plant (formerly IMCO).

"Back in the days when BNSF and BN (Burlington Northern) had customers in Coeur d'Alene, the train came onto the branch pretty much five days a week," Kelly said. "Today, with just that handful of customers in Post Falls and at Hauser Junction, the train comes onto the branch once a week, usually on Wednesday evenings."