The Chehalis Centralia Railroad and Museum on Saturday announced it would suspend all passenger operations until further notice.
“Due to circumstances beyond our control, the Chehalis Centralia Railroad has made the difficult decision to suspend all passenger operations until further notice,” the organization posted to Facebook. “We appreciate your support and are looking to resume operations as soon as we are able to do so.”
All tickets purchased for the 2022 Easter Eggspress will be fully refunded, according to the post. Refunds could take a week.
Though the Chehalis Centralia Railroad Board of Directors, which signed the post, did not specify a reason, the suspension is due to the organization's inability to secure insurance, according to a letter to railroad members from President James Folk that was provided to The Chronicle.
“Many of you have heard that we were having difficulty getting operating liability insurance for the railroad,” he wrote. “Today we received the final answer from our broker that we are not able to get this insurance.”
He wrote that the railroad was working to get non-operating liability in place for the interim. The current insurance was set to expire at 12:01 a.m. Sunday, according to the letter.
“Given our situation the future of the railroad looks very bleak,” Folk wrote. “None of the railroad insurance companies are willing to insure our organization for at least a year, and possibly longer. There will be some very difficult decisions made at next week’s board meeting on March 9. The most likely outcome of all this is that we will be shutting down permanently. It is my intention to see that we are able to wrap up current projects as much as possible over the next few months to leave our equipment in the best possible shape for any future opportunities that may come up.”
“I know many of you have put your heart and soul into keeping this railroad running, and I am very sorry to have to write this. I want to thank all of you for your dedication and hard work.”
This story will be updated.
