Turning the old U.S. 80 bridge into a pedestrian and bicycle pathway remains elusive as Kansas City Southern Railroad appears unwilling to meet with the Friends of the Vicksburg Bridge.
In the past the railroad has opposed two major efforts to finance a walkway with federal highway money since the bridge closed to vehicles. The most recent was in 2006, when KCS opposed it in writing to state and federal legislators from Vicksburg, including U.S Rep. Bennie Thompson, the Mississippi Department of Transportation and then-Gov. Haley Barbour.
KCS has stated their main reason for opposing the idea is the safety of those that would use the bridge and the safe operation of their trains.
However, special events on the bridge’s roadbed have spiked in the past half-decade since the Over The River Run started in 1989. The Post has photographed many of those events while trains are crossing the bridge.
KCS has not once stopped a train on the Louisiana side of the bridge in protest and waited for an event to finish before sending the train across.
“I’d want to see what the railroad has to say,” Warren County Board of Supervisors President Bill Lauderdale said late Friday, adding no response had come the county’s way from KCS since the long-discussed idea resurfaced. “Two things have got to happen — the railroad’s got to agree and someone’s got to help us pay for it.”
Has the railroad in the past agreed to events, such as Over the River Run? If so, wouldn’t that violate the very principle they are using to oppose the walkway?
Since 1989 there has not been a single incident involving a pedestrian or cyclist and a train.
Would the county decide to go ahead with the project if it could find a source of funding to provide barriers to safely prohibit pedestrians and cyclists from interfering with a train?
Friends of the Vicksburg Bridge are a well-connected group and could raise the funds through private ventures if they chose to.
Would KCS decide to find another crossing if that happened?
That’s a question only KCS can answer, and so far they aren’t talking.