(The following article by Paul Bryant was posted on the Vicksburg Post website on December 31.)
VICKSBURG, Miss. — On the same day former President Bill Clinton signed the North American Free Trade Agreement 22 years ago, Kansas City Southern acquired MidSouth Rail Corporation, a move that helped solidify Warren County’s standing in the rail industry.
“KCS has invested heavily in the old MidSouth railroad,” said Doniele Kane, director of corporate communications and community affairs for Kansas City Southern. “This investment has greatly improved that rail corridor over its prior condition and greatly advanced Warren County’s economic competitiveness for the future.”
Edward Wright, 36, of Monroe, La., is a conductor for KCS. He said changes to tracks and operations have allowed the company to move trains faster and more efficiently.
“It’s a lot different than it was 12 years ago,” he said. “We’re getting train traffic across rails quicker. It used to take four hours to get from Jackson to Monroe. Now, it takes under four hours. Also, between Vicksburg and Jackson, we used to run off direct traffic control. Now, we use centralized traffic control.”
Centralized traffic control, or CTC, is a signaling system that includes a dispatcher’s office that controls railroad switches and the signals railroad engineers must obey to keep the railroad’s traffic moving safely and smoothly across rails.
Vicksburg is part of the Meridian Speedway, a 320-mile line between Shreveport, La., and Meridian, Miss. Since the MidSouth acquisition, more than $750 million has been spent to upgrade the speedway, which has restored the route as a strategic east-west corridor.
Kane said Vicksburg has been and will be crucial to the company’s investment on the line, Kane said.
“Keeping freight rail transportation through Warren County up-to-date and fluid will be vital to attracting new industry and jobs for the local economy,” she said. “The substantial investments in the railroad by KCSR, and now the KCS-Norfolk Southern joint venture, will help ensure the future competitiveness of this corridor, making Warren County even more competitive for new jobs and growth.”
Lamar Bass, the terminal trainmaster for Vicksburg’s KCS rail yard, said the company employs about 37 here.
“We’re constantly hiring,” he said. “We’ve got quite a few people who are going to be retiring.”
Vicksburg has become a focal point along the Meridian Speedway because of its proximity to automotive manufacturers and its strategic location along the primary trade route corridor between the Pacific coast and southeastern United States.
“Vicksburg and Warren County (are) at the center of the New South manufacturing base and its automotive manufacturing corridor,” Kane said. “There are over 100 automotive suppliers alone within a 125-mile radius of Vicksburg.”
In 2005, Kansas City Southern Railway spent $3.5 million to upgrade 11 miles of track from just east of Vicksburg to the Mississippi River. The program included inserting new ties, laying new rail across the bridge over the Mississippi, relaying all of the rail in the area, undercutting the track, extending the Newman’s siding, between Vicksburg and Bovina, from 3,500 to 9,000 feet and building a new drainage system along the main track. Another $4 million was invested CTC in the 50 miles between Bovay, La., and Jackson.
Bovay is just west of the Mississippi River bridge near Delta.
KCS spent $1.7 million in 2004 on a curve reduction program in the 100-year-old brick tunnel below Washington Street because the quarter-mile track was difficult to maneuver. Eastbound trains leaving the Mississippi River bridge veered north to parallel the embankment for two miles. On a 1.74 percent grade, trains were forced to swerve into a 17-degree right curve. Many times, trains left the rails in the short tunnel.
KCS began work on the tracks after it bought and demolished the old Mississippi Lumber Co. building at Mulberry and Oak streets. The company used the 2.2-acre site to make a more gentle curve in the tracks as they crossed under Washington Street.
The investment has allowed KCS trains to increase its speed from 10 mph to 35 mph through Vicksburg and improve its productivity, KCS engineer Mike Williams of Pearl said.
“Before, we were running about six to 10 trains a day through here,” he said. “We’re running 25 to 30 trains a day in both directions now.”
However, business owners and residents in and around Vicksburg’s Garden District had complained about speed and noise of those trains before work on the tracks were complete. Bass said he no longer receives such complaints.
“I don’t really get them,” he said.
Nonetheless, Kane said, KCS is working with city officials to possibly eliminate at-grade crossings through Vicksburg so whistle-blowing can be minimized and at-grade crossings can be reduced.
The tracks across Mississippi from east to west are an important part of KCS’s participation in increased rail traffic because of the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, involving the United States, Mexico and Canada. The company uses the line that comes through Vicksburg as a vital part of its ability to move goods from Mexico to markets in the Northeast.
NAFTA established a free-trade zone in North America. It was signed in 1992 by Canada, Mexico and the United States and took effect Jan. 1, 1994.
NAFTA immediately lifted tariffs on the majority of goods produced by signatory nations. It also called for the gradual elimination, over 15 years, of most remaining barriers to cross-border investment and to the movement of goods and services among the three countries.
Major industries affected include agriculture, automobile and textile manufacturing, telecommunications, financial services, energy and trucking. NAFTA also provides for labor and environmental cooperation among member countries.
KCS has completed other projects on the line over the last two years. They were:
— Construction of a new $1.8 million double-track mainline in west Jackson that increases train velocity and reduces delays at grade crossings for automobiles.
— Extension of a $1.4 million siding just east of Vicksburg from 3,500 feet to 8,500 feet to allow longer trains to meet and pass.
— Installation of remote control switches on five sidings between Meridian and Vicksburg at a cost of $300,000.
— Installation of 18 sets of crossing signals and gates and 22 grade crossing surface upgrades as part of a $10 million, five-year cooperative effort between KCSR and the Mississippi Department of Transportation.
KCS, headquartered in Kansas City, is a transportation holding company that has railroad investments in the U.S., Mexico and Panama. Its primary U.S. holdings include KCSR and Texas Mexican Railway Company, serving the central and south central U.S. across 6,000 miles. Its revenue in 2005 was $1.4 million.