The Amtrak Cascades train that carries thousands of Seattle riders south each week has not run its normal schedule in eight days, and as of Sunday night it still was not clear when it would again.
Ambitious 2008 plans for a food-innovation hub never materialized.
A resident who has been following the dispute, Bryan Gregory, told a Portland television station the standoff was "an opportunity for Portland and Multnomah County to actually step up and be effective in real time" in overseeing a private railroad operating next to an unstable structure.
The disruption also lands on a service that was already under strain before the fire.
That the deadline falls on a private owner, not the city itself, is a direct consequence of the 2024 sale.
A fire-gutted Portland warehouse with no internal frame left has kept Amtrak Cascades trains off the tracks between Seattle and Portland for eight days, with Union Pacific's own restart attempt stalled and a demolition deadline now driving both the rail timeline and a possible-remains investigation.