Connecting the South
A $14 million grant application, filed jointly between Amtrak and state, local and federal Mississippi legislators, proposes creating a new passenger line branching west from Meridian and ending in Dallas, adding onto the line that already runs south from New York City to New Orleans.
The grant would allow Amtrak and the railway owner to study how to make the passenger route work alongside freight trains on the same line, and how safely it could pass through communities previously unserved by rail travel.
The application to fund the study is one of nearly 100 filed nationwide since the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law of 2021, which set aside $66 billion for improvements to the national passenger rail system and also created the office of Network Development at Amtrak.
The Vice President of that office, Nicole Bucich, says the new line could act as both a catalyst for the South’s economy as well as a resource for some of the region’s vulnerable communities.
“The extension that is being proposed will provide a direct, one-seat ride between these communities and the economic epicenters of the south — Dallas / Fort Worth and Atlanta,” said Bucich. “It will also provide crucial connections for universities, medical centers and military installations in the region. These are groups in need of transportation alternatives to I-20.”
While this grant would cover planning and development of the line, a second grant would be required to fund design and construction. Mississippi Department of Transportation Commissioner Willie Simmons announced that the agency would match any funds approved in the initial grant dollar for dollar.
Knox Ross, a Mississippi commissioner at the Southern Rail Commission, says the expansion is projected to create 77 permanent jobs and up to $73 million in economic revenue per year for the state economy.
“It connects our cities to the rest of the country, and we have cities along this line that struggle to keep commercial air service. So cities are really struggling to bring people to them that aren’t driving, and there’s so much there that we’ve discovered that will really make a difference and make our cities more livable.”
“We’re able to take advantage of the best opportunity in decades to bring a central Mississippi passenger rail connection to the rest of the country. One of the most significant things is that this will establish Jackson as the passenger rail crossroads of the south,” Ross said.
The process to begin studying the proposed route began in earnest after railway firm Canadian Pacific merged with Kansas City Southern in April. Part of that agreement were contractual obligations made to the Federal Railroad Administration that the newly-formed CPKC would begin exploring the I-20 corridor extension, which it estimated would take two years to begin operating.
“It may well be that service can start (along I-20) prior to some of the improvements being made, because that’s exactly how it’s going to work on the coast. There will be a period of 3 or 4 years where track and station improvements will speed up service on the coast, but the service will start before that,” said Ross.
