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Legislation may save Mississippi rail line
RICHARD E SHIVIK from GEORGIA said:
Ummm, there is no station at Vaughn, MS. There is no museum there or anything, not even a historical marker, to allude to the site’s historical value. My wife and I were there in May of 2011. It was very disappointing.
It closed in 2004, and was relocated to the town of West, Mississippi.
This appears to fit a scenario where the rail line continues to deteriorate because it is not used. Then the state comes up with the money to purchase it, and that would be more profitable for the owners than tearing it up for scrap.
There are many instances documenting V&S falsifying facts regarding operation of the line. Excessive surcharges, good bridges stated as bad, punitive service and cooked car numbers to name a few. The Yahoo! group Magrails has done a good job in reporting these.
If you have visited this region of Mississippi you can see the importance of having rail service. It was once viable till CN switched everything to the Greenwood route. The pulpwood loadings on this line were once amazing.
It would be quicker to arrest the bums in charge of the V&S railway. Shysters from the first day of operation.
When the station was still at Vaughn, it was a “museum” that was seldom or never open. When we lived in MS 9/97 to 12/99, we went to Vaughn several times and never found it open. AFAIK, there isn’t much industry on the line. Nissan has an auto plant at Canton with capacity to make 400,000 cars per year, but don’t know the possibility for the line in question to attract any of that traffic. CN and KCS currently serve the plant on CN’s line from Jackson (+/- 20 miles).
Why does this line need $30 million of taxpayer dollars? If this line was truly viable, then the investors would be lined up all the way around the block. But you can bet that several MO state legislators will be getting huge campaign contributions in their coffers if this deal passes.
Ummm, there is no station at Vaughn, MS. There is no museum there or anything, not even a historical marker, to allude to the site’s historical value. My wife and I were there in May of 2011. It was very disappointing.
Can somebody with local knowledge fill us in please. What industries are there?
I suggest you all examine how A&K attempted to pull off one of their abandonment scenarios by abandoning the west end of the TP&W. The STB caught them in their misrepresentations there.
Mr. Norton is correct in his term usage.
I’ll bet the Rails to Trails yuppies are salivating over the prospect of the abandonment of that line.
Yuppies in Missippissi ?
Schumacher and Nicoloff also own a “railroad materials” business which is in part in business to salvage “abandoned” rail lines!!! Sounds like a conflict of interest to me … the STB should investigate how many other rail lines this pair bought then intentionally abandoned so as to get a quick return on their “investment” …