(The following story by Chris Brennaman was posted on Mississippi television station WTOK’s website on September 26.)
MERIDIAN, Miss. — As a former federal railroad administrator, Gil Carmichael knows a lot about railroads, especially those in and around Meridian.
He says that one thing that is leading to the increased number of derailments is a larger traffic flow.
“If you put a lot of automobiles on the highway, you’re going to have a lot of wrecks. Well, if you keep increasing the numbers of trains and the cargo they’re moving, you’re gonna have derailments because you’re in constant maintenance and upgrading them,” Carmichael said.
And that traffic will continue to increase as the Meridian Speedway becomes a reality. The Speedway is a stretch of track that will connect Shreveport and Meridian. It will become a major corridor for trains traveling from coast to coast.
Carmichael says that of all the lines in Meridian, it is the M&B line that needs the most work.
“It needs a lot of upgrading and the company that just bought that railroad is doing that,” said Carmichael. “They’re spending a lot of money on that. The business is growing and the companies are spending money to upgrade the track.”
Carmichael said that track repairs, industry-wide, are a priority. This year alone, more than $8 billion are going to upgrades and improvements.