It began operations in 2006 on ex-Northern Pacific Railway and Washington, Idaho and Montana Railway trackage formerly operated by the Palouse River and Coulee City Railroad, which had acquired it from the Burlington Northern Railroad in 1996.
[3] The BN sold the lines from Marshall to Arrow, Idaho and Palouse to Bovill, Idaho to the newly created Palouse River and Coulee City Railroad (PCC),[4] which began operations in September 1996.
[5] It subsequently abandoned the ends from Harvard to Bovill and Moscow to Arrow, and in September 2006 the Washington and Idaho Railway began operating the remainder under contract.
[7] It also has access to an ex-Union Pacific Railroad line west from Pullman to Risbeck (also formerly owned by the PCC) for railcar storage.
A new operator took over in August 2019 and is called the Spokane, Spangle & Palouse Railway (SSP).