KCS prepares to unveil rail route designs
Thursday meeting first look for county & city officials
By BARRY HALVORSON and SHANNON CRABTREE

Local officials will learn if at least some of the concerns area residents have about railroads returning to Wharton County have been addressed during a project briefing this Thursday.

Representatives from Kansas City Southern Railway have scheduled a noon briefing in Wharton to share their preliminary designs for the reconstruction of the old Southern Pacific right-of-way to restore rail service along the route between Rosenberg and Victoria with local officials.

Media representative Doniele Kane said in an e-mail that no advance information on the route is available before the meeting.

Among those planning to attend the briefing is Wharton County Judge John Murrile.

"I'm not sure what they are going to talk about," he said in a phone interview. "This is more of a follow up meeting (the company hosted a previous briefing in June). I'm interested to see what progress they've made on identifying the route."

Murrile said the county commissioners expressed several concerns at the previous briefing. Those concerns included possibly re-routing around the cities of El Campo and Wharton.

In El Campo, there are 11 crossings to contend with if the rail sticks to the original corridor as well as several viable businesses including two restaurants and a major saloon.

The judge expressed a particular concern about the possibility of the railroad tracks running between the city's EMS department and Gulf Coast Medical Center in Wharton.

Cecil Davis, president of the Gulf Coast Rural ral Rail Transportation District and long-time advocate of rail's return to Wharton County, said he won't be in attendance.

"I'd love to see what they have in mind for Wharton County," Davis said. "I will be extremely interested to see what they outlined."

El Campo Mayor Phillip Spenrath is leading a group trying to get the rail to bypass the El Campo city limits and follow the U.S. 59 corridor instead.

Spenrath hopes to be at the meeting Thursday.

"I think that would probably benefit downtown to not go through," Davis said. "(Moving the main line) would benefit our traffic and I hope it can happen for the benefit of downtown."

But having at least a local service line through the center of El Campo is important, he said.

"There are businesses in the downtown that are interested in rail contrary to what other people are saying," Davis said. "We've got to have local service. That was the whole point - rail service to El Campo. Going around El Campo is not service to El Campo."

During their previous briefing, KCS Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs Warren Erdman said the company is also looking at providing railroad spurs to local manufacturers and distributors but those decisions would be made at the corporate level. He added the local area would benefit by replacing truck traffic with rail service.