NEWPORT - The state has presented the members of Old Colony & Newport Railway with a new operating agreement that would keep the nonprofit train running on Sundays from the Newport Depot to an area near Greene Lane in Middletown, a 10-mile round-trip run.

"The proposed agreement is being circulated to our board and members," said Donald G. Elbert Jr., Old Colony's executive director. "We're recommending it be executed."

Elbert expects the agreement to be signed in the next 10 days, ending an ongoing dispute.

Last year, the state's Department of Transportation presented Old Colony with an operating agreement and the demand that it be signed "no later than by Nov. 19, 2004."

Old Colony objected to the agreement because it would be put completely under the auspices of the Newport Dinner Train, operators said. The Old Colony members, who are volunteers, said they would be forced to shut down under that agreement.

Newport City Manager James C. Smith stepped in before the November deadline and, working with Elbert and Old Colony volunteer Peter Martin, came up with a modified alternative agreement that the Department of Transportation agreed to consider.

Since then, Smith and the office of Secretary of Transportation James Capaldi have been negotiating details and working out compromises.

"We are really pleased Mr. Smith stepped in and did this," Elbert said. "We think he did an excellent job. He used his negotiating skills to work this out."

The agreement is between the DOT and Old Colony, but it also regulates relations between Old Colony and the Newport Dinner Train.

There have been conflicts in the past between the two railways, which have different markets and missions, but both operate on the Newport Secondary Line that runs along the western shore of Aquidneck Island.

The Old Colony & Newport Railway is a nonprofit educational and tourist operation that runs trains on Sundays at 11:45 a.m. and 1:45 p.m., except for Easter Sunday, Mother's Day and Father's Day. Old Colony, which has been operating since 1979, offers historical presentations and lectures on railroading during the 1850-1950 time period. The operating agreement does not allow the train to sell food, beverages or entertainment.

Old Colony also runs some charter trains. In the coming year, Portsmouth Abbey, the Navy YMCA and the state's Department of Labor have signed up for railroad runs.

The Newport Dinner Train, a private firm owned by Robert J. Andrews of Portsmouth, operates trains throughout the year on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, as well as private charter trains. The dinner train under Andrews' ownership is in its eighth year and runs from the depot at the Goat Island Connector in Newport to the Sakonnet River railroad bridge in Portsmouth, a distance of 12.4 miles.

RIDOT has a separate operating agreement with the Newport Dinner Train.

The agreement Old Colony was asked to sign in November had language such as: "Old Colony will be allowed to run rail services every Sunday during January 1 through March 31, unless instructed otherwise by Dinner Train."

The new agreement avoids those kind of statements, while still making clear that the Newport Dinner Train will have priority on the track when two trains are running at same time, Elbert said. The agreement also says that Newport Dinner Train "shall have exclusive authority and responsibility to dispatch all trains and other activities, such as maintenance of way operations ..."

"Still, there's been some major concessions by RIDOT," Elbert said.

"Under this new agreement, there is recognition of the fact that we have a right to operate on the line in accordance with mutually agreed upon schedules and procedures," he said. "Before, under November's proposal, we would be too dependent on receiving approval of the dinner train."

In return for operating on the line, Old Colony will pay 10 percent of its gross revenues to RIDOT.

In November, RIDOT also had demanded that Old Colony "contribute a minimum 500 hours of volunteer hours to the maintenance of the Newport Secondary Line on a yearly basis."

Under the new agreement, the requirement for volunteer work on the line has been dropped.

Old Colony volunteers have been working on the line for more than two decades now, and Old Colony had proposed continuing to provide that labor instead of paying money.

"We recognize the cost of operating the line," Elbert said. "We filled our obligation in the past with a minimum of 300 hours of volunteer time, and giving some years up to 600 hours. The state prefers a direct payment."

"We would have liked the state to recognize the value of our volunteer hours," Elbert said.

Old Colony also will receive a five-year agreement with RIDOT instead of last year's proposed two years.

Finally, Old Colony will be allowed to keep its three locomotives and five passenger cars near Pier 2 of the Naval Base, off Burma Road. The November agreement said Old Colony would have to move from that location, without specifying an alternative.

The Old Colony train did not operate on this past Sunday because of the snowstorm and will not operate this coming Sunday because members will be cleaning the tracks with a "cowcatcher" in front of a locomotive acting as a plow.

"It will take us a good week to clean up," Elbert said.

He said train operations should resume on Feb. 6.