Dean Guernsey / The Bulletin file photoThese tank cars carried crude oil through Bend late last year.

The Oregon Transportation Commission voted unanimously Thursday to adopt a new rail plan that members say will allow the state to focus its attention on new freight and passenger projects that will help push people off highways and onto mass transit.

The new plan updates a 2001 plan and puts the state in line with federal guidelines. The plan also gives the state a chance to be in line for federal grant money in the future.

“If we can put especially our goods … on rail, we can save a lot of money on highways,” Commissioner David Lohman said. “So it makes sense to do what we can to make those railroads work for us.”

Oregon Department of Transportation employees called the plan “high level,” meaning it doesn’t get down to planning of individual freight and passenger lines.

The state was required to create the rail plan to be eligible for federal rail grants — grants that the state is losing out on, said Hal Gard, the head of Oregon’s rail division.

“We’re coming into a crisis this next year, and I’m not sure the state is going to be able to fund passenger rail after 2015. And that’s a very serious conversation,” Gard told commissioners.

Deschutes County Commissioner Alan Unger said the plan, along with a Central Oregon Rail Plan, puts focus on lines such as the Prineville short line railway, an 18-mile line connecting Prineville to Prineville Junction, near Redmond.

The Prineville Short Line connects with a Burlington Northern Santa Fe line that carries freight through Bend and to California.

Lohman emphasized the need to maintain short railways such as the one in Prineville.

Gard also included an update on Oregon’s ranking among other states for regulating the boom in the amount of oil transported throughout the state, including in Bend.

The state is working toward updating its rules for rail companies that are moving hazardous materials through Oregon.

The new rules would, Gard said, address how often rail companies must report oil and other shipments that are moving through Oregon. That would include the highly flammable oil that comes from the Bakken formation in North Dakota and Montana.

“It’s reporting at what level of detail, at what frequency of what’s being hauled where,” Gard said. “This is really an effort to try to bring those rules into the 21st century.”

A derailment of a train loaded with crude oil killed 47 in July 2013 in Lac-Megantic, Quebec. The incident helped put the focus on states’ preparedness for emergencies caused by train wrecks.

Gard told the commission the state is in the bottom half nationally in figures for hauling freight by rail. But Oregon is in the upper half nationally for safety standards for its rail system, such as rail inspectors per mile.

The state had a hearing scheduled for Wednesday as part of its work to update rules for hauling hazardous material across the state. ODOT announced this week it would postpone that hearing. It didn’t schedule a date for its next hearing.

— Reporter: 406-589-4347

tanderson@bendbulletin.com