This letter was prompted by the letter from “The” Kansas City Southern Railway in Sunday’s newspaper by Doniele Carlson of the railroad’s community affairs office.

Please contradict or correct any misstatements that may follow:

• For many years, the railroad has frequently ignored or altered the per car fee payments submitted by Warren County for use of the Old U.S. 80 bridge over the Mississippi River. I have never heard an acceptable reason for this being allowed to continue.

• It is my understanding that the contractor for the replacement of the Washington Street bridge is a subsidiary of the railroad — an interesting situation.

• If the “difficult geological problem” has been “felt for years,” and was the reason for the closure of the bridge, one would assume this information would have been reflected in the cost and completion time of the contract. Both, however, seem to have been, and are being, missed by large margins.

• The railroad states that they agreed to “manage this difficult project effectively at a fixed rate even though the primary beneficiary will be Vicksburg’s motorists.” When will the “effective management” begin?

Completion of the bridge would surely benefit the people on the other end of the “utilities left hanging in the air” these past years.

If you are, as you say, “making every effort to fix this difficult problem and complete it as quickly and responsibly as possible,” perhaps you should stick to railroading and give up bridge building.

Bill Fenwick

Vicksburg