MOSES LAKE — The central Washington branch line of the PCC Rail System in an invaluable link between grain growers and the market, including one of the biggest customers on the line, Central Washington Grain Growers.

The PCC Rail System services elevators in Hartline, Cement, and Coulee City. The Washington State Department of Transportation oversees the facilities and regulatory portions of the operating leases and the PCC Rail Authority formed by Grant, Lincoln, Spokane and Whitman counties oversee the business and economic development portions of operating the leases.

“It depends on crop years, but on just that central Washington branch line, we’ve hauled more cartloads than any of the other lines we have,” said Bob Westby with the PCC Authority. “We have three lines. The other one goes from Marshall all the way down to the Washington-Idaho state line. The other line runs from Pullman to where it intersects with the Union Pacific. So between all three of the branch lines (298 miles), the central Washington line has typically hauled the most carloads. We hit 4,600 carloads a few years ago in 2011. We broke 4,000 in 2012.”

The central Washington line starts in Spokane County and interchanges with the BNSF line in Cheney, weaving 108 miles from Cheney to Coulee City. The PCC Rail System is the longest short-line freight rail system in the state, serving five eastern Washington counties, Grant, Lincoln, Spokane, Adams and Whitman.

“The significance of that is that each car holds around 3,500 bushels,” Westby said. “So they run trains into the Highline facility, which is a scoop operation. The Eastern Washington Gateway picks up at all those little elevators and run it into the Highline Grain Facility. The BNSF runs from Cheney to Highline. They can typically load them in 8-to-10 hours then run them to export on the coast.”

The transportation budget signed by Gov. Jay Inslee includes $2,322,000 for work on the PCC rail line tracks in eastern Washington, which includes $855,000 for system maintenance and $1,467,00 for a Freight Rail Assistance Program to rehabilitate the track between Cheney and Geiger.