A bipartisan group of Kansans put a plan to save the state's disappearing railroad system on the fast track Friday.

A far-reaching group of politicians, grain shippers, farmers and interested Kansans agreed during a meeting at Hutchinson's Ramada Inn to request by resolution a moratorium from the federal Surface Transportation Board on railroad-line abandonment in the state.

That moratorium will be used by a task force formed Friday to develop a port authority to regulate and maintain the railroad infrastructure essential for getting the state's grain to market.

The task force and the moratorium resolution grew out of a meeting sponsored in Hutch-inson by the Kansas Rural Development Council and Sen. Ben Vidricksen, R-Salina, chairman of the Senate Transp-ortation and Tourism Committee.

The task force plans to produce a resolution in 30 days to take to the federal government, in a last-ditch effort to ensure that rail transportation for grain remains available through the state.

There was a clear sense of urgency among the audience Friday as a broad range of railroad-related agriculture issues were debated. Few issues were resolved, but a clear consensus to stop the abandonment bleeding was reached. Almost 3,500 miles of railroad tracks have been abandoned in the past 20 years.

"If you're a doctor and your patient is dying on the table, talking about new procedures isn't going to help him," said Merle Wait Jr. of Protection. "Picking on the Class 1's or the little railroads isn't the answer. The problem we're all fighting is we can walk out of here and in three or four months we may not have a railroad. Then the point of this is moot."

After Friday's meeting, the task force assembled for a half hour to begin work on the resolution. Support will be sought from several groups, including road lobbyist Economic Lifelines, the Kansas League of Municipalities and the Kansas Association of Counties.

A second meeting will be scheduled once work on the resolution is complete.

The patients Wait referred to are rail lines abandoned across the state at alarming rates. With abandonment hearings being lost before the federal government, those at the meeting sought a quick way to stop the bleeding.

"This is critical to us," said Loren Medley of Kansas Electric Power Co-op. "We have to move the commodities we grow so well in Kansas. The people who are our members are the ones taking the risk to grow the commodities we need, and we know the most economical way to get those commodities to market is steel on steel."

Without that revival, counties across Kansas that rely on the agriculture economy are going to be hit with a heavy bill.

With railroads gone, farmers and other grain industry providers have turned to semi trailers to transport their products. With truck traffic on county roads up 20 to 30 percent in the past decade, the resulting damage to roads has skyrocketed.

Estimates cited at the meeting from a Sunday Wichita Eagle report indicate an astronomical cost for road repair necessitated by 350 grain-carrying semi trailers, or the equivalent of a 100-car train. A Kansas State University study estimated that 10 south-central Kansas counties, including Reno, could face up to $1 million a year in road damage bills as a result of the increased semi traffic.

Once the abandonments can be stopped, KRDC staffer Steve Bittel recommended formation of a team of experts to work with businesses and communities facing the loss of rail service.

The Kansas Legislature and the governor's office also must become involved, Bittel said.

State funding for rail-line rehabilitation, as well as state purchase of tracks and/or railroad cars, would help, Bittel said.

"But I know that's a kind of pie-in-the-sky thing," he said.

The Kansas Legislature's foray into railroad banking can also help, Bittel said. The Kansas Department of Transportation administers a revolving-loan fund, made up of both federal and state funding.

"What we need is to elevate that fund in importance in the state's eyes," he said.