(The following story by Michael Kerr appeared on the Beaufort Gazette website on November 24.)
BEAUFORT, S.C. — A train will barrel down the tracks between the Port of Port Royal and Yemassee for the last time Wednesday, as Beaufort County’s only rail service ceases operations after more than 125 years.
The South Carolina Department of Commerce’s Public Railways division, which operates the railroad, and the state Ports Authority, which owns the 26-mile rail line, have agreed to end the service because it wasn’t profitable.
“There’s just not enough business, not enough use,” said Clare Morris, communications director for the Commerce Department. “We’re trying to be frugal at the South Carolina Department of Commerce, and sometimes we have to cut out the things that aren’t getting a big payback.”
The state Ports Authority had a deal with South Carolina Public Railways to “make up the difference” if in any given year the expenses incurred in operating the rail line were more than the profits, said Byron Miller, Ports Authority spokesman.
While the rail service was “in the black most years,” it wasn’t enough, Miller said. “Clearly there is not an overabundance (of use),” he said. “It was not routinely a profitable rail.”
The Port Royal Railroad was completed on March 9, 1874, the same day the Town of Port Royal was incorporated. The tracks have been used to run both passenger and freight trains, and, until the 1960s, was used to haul Marine recruits to Parris Island.
Cargo coming into the port terminal now will be moved by truck, unless the Ports Authority decides to work with another rail operator, Miller said.
No decisions on the future of the railroad have been made, he said. Plans to close the Port of Port Royal have been materializing since Gov. Mark Sanford said in May that the port wasn’t profitable and was doing the state no good.
Port Royal officials, who hope the closure of the port will lead to a beneficial redevelopment of the 22 acres of waterfront property, believe the termination of railroad operations is a step in the right direction.
“We view it as a step toward the closure of the port,” said Port Royal Town Manager Van Willis.
South Carolina Railways entered into a contract with the Ports Authority on May 1, 1985, Morris said. Other than the Ports Authority, there aren’t any users of the railway, Morris said, although there is a spur into Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort.
The 26-mile corridor between the port and the Yemassee train station that once served as a greeting place for Marine recruits en route to Parris Island could be used for trails or to ease some of the traffic in other parts of the town, he said.
“That decision is way above me,” Willis said.
Air station officials haven’t expressed opposition to cease in operations, and the base doesn’t use the railway regularly, as fuel is delivered to the air station on barges.