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photo by Hannah Reel
Natchez Adams County Port employee Robert Robb rides on the back of a car while moving it at the port Thursday.
Legislators oppose sale of rail lines
Published Friday, June 5, 2009
NATCHEZ — Local legislators voted along with the rest of the Mississippi House to oppose the approval of the sale of rail lines in Mississippi, including the 66-mile line from Natchez to Brookhaven.
In a resolution passed last Friday, the legislators asked the State Transportation Board to deny approval for the transfer of ownership of 252 miles of railroad track from Canadian National Railway to two companies, Natchez Railway LLC and Grenada Rail LLC, if the companies could not guarantee the rail lines would stay open long-term.
The deal between Canadian National and Natchez Railway has not been made public, but Canadian National has said that it includes two years continued service to the lines.
District 94 Rep. Robert Johnson III said when he first heard of the sale, he was excited because he thought it might bring more rail traffic down the line.
But that excitement dimmed when he heard one of the parent companies of Natchez Railway is in the railroad salvage business.
“They do operate some (rail) lines, but what they do mostly is tear up tracks that are not in use and sell them for salvage,” Johnson said. “It doesn’t make sense when we are trying to get more industry into Natchez to tear up tracks.”
In the stimulus package passed by Congress earlier this year included $8 billion for railroad projects, and Johnson said he believes closing rail lines would be shutting the door on development opportunities he feels are inevitable.
Photo by Hannah Reel
Cars sit on the tracks at the Natchez Adams County Port. While the county owns all of the rail lines in the port, the lines connecting the port to the outside world have recently been sold.
“We understand (rail) is the most economic way to transport any product or people across the country,” Johnson said.
“We have two things working for us here, a rail line that connects us to I-55 and the river.”
District 97 Rep. Sam Mims said he met with one of the executives of the rail company this week, and the executive expressed to him a desire to keep the rail line open.
“Obviously, we can’t tell a private company what to do, but I think the resolution stated our hope that the rail system would stay open and active,” Mims said. “It is in the best interest of Adams County and southwest Mississippi to have an open and active rail system.”
District 96 Rep. Angela Cockerham said her main concern was keeping assets the area already has.
“You hate to see businesses close or things taken away from a county, and anything we can keep in Adams County, I think we should,” Cockerham said.
“I don’t want there to be a sale, and then there is not any kind of railway in our area. If there is a sale and somebody to operate it, it is completely different.”
Natchez-Adams County Port Commissioner Anthony Hauer said that, while Canadian National solely owns the line from Natchez to Brookhaven, the tracks within the port are owned by the port commission.
Without the Canadian National line, the port tracks would be cut off from outside transportation.
Comments
Posted by bulldozer (anonymous) on June 5, 2009 at 6:40 a.m. (Suggest removal)
state legislators you can't even run your own operations. Why bankrupt someone else. Let the rail roads do as they want. You remember you wanted and passed law along with the Dept of Interior to bring the Trace along this route? How fast you want to forget. My vote ...bring the Trace down the Rail Way.
Posted by adamstanton (anonymous) on June 5, 2009 at 7:10 a.m. (Suggest removal)
If you going to look down the road then why not use it as a regional line for transportation. The reason people don't use the train here is it isn't convenient enough too costly and trains if any are't frequent enough. Once Gas gets back up and it will go back up alternate means of transportation will come into play.
Posted by BRL (anonymous) on June 5, 2009 at 10:25 a.m. (Suggest removal)
The trace idea could work. Time will tell, just don't let them dismantle the track, and we'll see what happens in the future.
Posted by butch (anonymous) on June 5, 2009 at 11:12 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Adamstanton you are aware that they are talking about transportation as it relates to industry and not passenger transportation ?
Posted by smartupnatchez (anonymous) on June 5, 2009 at 5:03 p.m. (Suggest removal)
All the "leaders" want is to be able to offer a means of transportation to bring in dirty raw materials to the dirty industries that they are trying to attract back to Natchez. For instance RENTECH. Smart up Natchez and reject these ruiners of our environment.
Posted by adamstanton (anonymous) on June 6, 2009 at 7:55 a.m. (Suggest removal)
yes I am aware, of the conversation but was just making a thought about travel to the area, I have family down there and it is out of the way. You can leave Jackson and go by the way of Natchez and after driving two hours south and west you are no closer actually to New Orleans than you were when you left home. I just feel if there was regional train travel to the area it would help but the problem with trains in the south is there are very few options. So the commment I was making is about not selling the lines leaving the tracks in place having passenger trains and tying the whole river region all the way from Baton Rouge to Memphis in with the main line of Amtrak but I guess thats looking too far down the road unless gas gets back up to 4 dollars a gallon rapidly and higher as more than likely it will get again. When I lived in the New York area they had a Jersey shore line that just ran down there and back four or five times a day to Penn station and it was very convenient. Was just thinking is all.
Posted by Krogers (anonymous) on June 6, 2009 at 1:06 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I cannot understand how a transaction like this can be blocked by government
so what if they tear the track up after they buy it
if it's not economically feasible to operate and maintain, then it is a safety hazard to allow the tracks to deteriorate
but I agree it would be atttractive to future industry here for there to be an existant rail service on a long term basis , but I can't see that it's government's place to mandate that to any company. Are there any ownership rights left to private business? Do I not have a choice anymore whether I start up or close down a business? Do you?
This is getting out of control.
adamstanton you have a good thought, -- I don't see why you couldn't operate passenger and freight on the same tracks? Or is that too much common sense for a railway or gov't to think of? With computer controls, high tech communication, etc you'd think a decent railway could do that , and that it would be more financially rewarding than to have freight and passenger on seperate rails necessarily?
I enjoy riding Amtrack and wish I didn't have to ride East to I55 - McComb, Brookhaven, etc to get on...
Posted by adamstanton (anonymous) on June 7, 2009 at 9:49 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I just got back from Italy and rode trains all over the cvountry except for one flight,but it was convenient fast and often that trains came now whether that would work here or not who know but I do know this if it were an option I would certainly consider it but today it isn't an option. I have riddent Amtrack to New Orleans the problem there is that there is only one train a day going in each direction. When I was heading to Milan from Florence in Italy there was one every hour now thats so much different.
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