The Webster Progress-Times

Formation of a steering committee to establish a regional rail authority will be the next step in the proposed revitalization of the Columbus and Greenville Railway.

About 60 people attending a July 24 meeting at the Eupora Depot about the project learned this from Executive Director Cynthia Wilson of the Webster County Development Council. She said Rudy Johnson, executive director of the Golden Triangle Planning and Development District, will be asked to serve on the committee because he has experience in forming the Golden Triangle Solid Waste Management Authority.

Wilson said C&G would deed the railroad to the authority when it is established, and then lease it. Roger Bell, president and chief executive officer for C&G, said any public monies received by the authority to make repairs will require some kind of match.

He also said the majority of the railroad needs to be taken up and replaced. The estimated cost to refurbish the line, according to Wilson, is at least $36 million and the project would take at least two years. Bell would not guarantee that the railroad line would be profitable if reopened and said its success depends on traffic generated.

However, Wayne Parrish, director of MDOT's Freight, Rails, Ports and Waterways Division, pointed out that a million dollars invested in transportation infrastructure produces about 47 jobs.

Elected officials representing the six counties in the West Point-to-Greenwood line, congressional field representatives, economic developers, representatives of the PDD, Appalachian Regional Commission and Mississippi Department of Transportation, and others interested in the project attending last week's meeting. Meetings were previously conducted in each of the counties with elected officials, and business and industry.

The ARC has awarded the WCDC a grant to study the feasibility of restoring rail service along the 92-mile inactive section of railway. The funding is being combined with funding from local sources to conduct an engineering analysis of the route. The feasibility study, which is being conducted by a team from Mississippi State University, is nearing completion.

Scott Hercik, a transportation adviser for the ARC, talked about the emerging global economy during the meeting and said the commission cares about creating access to global markets in its 13-state region. He said discussion of reviving the railroad link was not the main reason for the meeting but rather building the region's economic future.

Also making a presentation were Bill Martin, project manager with MSU's Industrial Outreach Service, and Bethany Stitch with MSU's Department of Political Science and Public Administration, who gave an overview of the feasibility study. They said the MSU team had found out that refurbishing the east-west line would be beneficial for a number of reasons, including cost savings to industries, improving transportation and attracting new industry.

Martin said 75 percent of businesses and industries looking to locate in Mississippi would like to have or require rail service. He specifically said that a rail corridor is needed from the Tenn-Tom Waterway to the Mississippi River for scrap recycling. A representative of SeverCorr, which uses scrap metal, said reopening of the line would benefit the company.

Donald Rychnowski of Salamanca, N.Y., executive director of the Southern Tier West Regional Planning and Development Board, shared lessons learned in a railroad revitalization project in western New York.

The rail authority is a financially self-supporting public agency charged with regional transportation planning for the 145-mile Southern Tier Extension rail line. The economic development entity was established to negotiate the purchase of the line when it became dormant under Conrail, the original owner, and subsequent owner Norfolk Southern.

"This takes a lot of vision and patience," said Rychnowski, pointing out that the STW Board invested 25 years in saving the line there but that it's now viable and will grow.

Rychnowski said the board relies mostly on grants some private investments by rail operators, and that the state ultimately became a partner "because we shamed them into it." The seventh and final phase of line rehabilitation should be completed by 2009, he stated.

"It can happen and can be a major benefit to this region," he said of the local project.

Cutline - RUSSELL HOOD/STAFF - Bell addresses those gathered at the rail revitalization meeting.