Railroad’s Return Was An Answered Prayer
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DAVE’S WORLD
By David Howell
If you read the story on page 3 about the Grenada Railway depot, you learned about another milestone that follows the ninth hour miracle that saved the old Illinois Central railroad that runs from Canton to Memphis. Former Water Valley mayor Larry Hart has said on more than one occasion that the near demise of that rail line was not a simple story of old-fashioned rail colliding with modern transportation economics. Instead the cause of neglect was simply a lack of vision, of how 21st Century rail could prosper while helping area industry thrive.
The timeline starts years earlier as Illinois Central was sold to Canadian National in 1998. Three years earlier, in 1995, Amtrak had shifted the route of the City of New Orleans train to the Delta line and much of the freight traffic had already shifted. Illinois Central favored the newer and flatter Yazoo District line over the Grenada line.
Hart recalls many times when he was in the Grenada area, he would ride by the old depot. The building was dilapidated and there was a lone, dim light on the front and a stray cat lurking nearby.
“That is about all the life there was, no train traffic,” Hart told me.
But he could visualize his father and other railroaders working at the depot back when the Illinois Central was vibrant on the Grenada line. And Hart thought about all the railroad families in Water Valley.
“It is hard to find any locals that the railroad doesn’t touch,” Hart explained.
The timeline continues as Hart began to hear chatter that the railroad would be closed and the depot demolished. It was then that he started sincerely praying about the return of the railroad.
In 2009, Canadian National spun off the line, selling the 228 mile segment of track that also includes the line that runs to Coffeeville. The line was sold to A&K Materials, creating the short line Grenada Railway. By all accounts, the new owners were ultimately interested in scrapping the rail. The 90-mile stretch between Grenada and Canton fell into disrepair and was closed. The northern portion of the line remained open, but rail traffic was minimal.
Hart’s official involvement starts when the North Central Mississippi Rail Road Authority (NCMRRA) was formed in 2011 with representatives from seven Mississippi counties including Yalobusha. This railroad authority was formed after a notice for abandonment of the portion of the track between Grenada and Canada was filed with the U. S. Surface Transportation Board (STB) in 2011.
Hart serves as chairman of the railroad authority. And he vividly recalls that the fate of the rail line ultimately came down to a matter of hours. It was a phone call with an STB official in the spring of 2014, and Hart was told that the NCMRRA had to show they had the resources to purchase the line or else. The deadline was 8 a.m. the next morning, after that the process would likely start to scrap the rail.
Hart said the dismantled track would have been sent to Brazil or other areas. The eight o’clock ultimatum came after Hart and other railroad authority members had worked day and night to put together a funding package with no success.
Later that night, or actually during the wee hours the next morning, state lawmakers were able to allocate $30 million for the rail purchase. It literally came down to the final hours and prayers had been answered.
“The STB guy was pulling for us, he wanted us to buy the rail. He put it off and put it off until it came down to ‘Larry, we have to do it.’”
Hart was able to help secure another $13 million loan for the railroad authority, enough to purchase the line. There were still many challenges ahead, but the short line railroad is now vibrant and the entire feat is no small miracle.
Meanwhile the NCMRRA remains intact these days, through activity is minimal. But you never know when another railroad project will emerge in these parts – hopefully sooner than later!
