Hear The Train A Comin'?
Construction under way for rail line return
By SHANNON CRABTREE scrabtree@leader-news.com

As work progresses on the Rosenberg to Victoria rail line, the city of El Campo is still working with the Texas Department of Transportation and operator Kansas City Southern Railways to bypass the trains from the original corrdior running through the heart of El Campo. KCS is anticipating the line will be complete from Rosenberg to Kendleton by the second quarter of 2008 with the full track operational by the first part of 2009. Photo Illustration Courtesy of www.experienceelcampo.com

Efforts to return the Rosenberg to Victoria rail line are gathering steam, but it's still unknown whether trains will be chugging through El Campo or around the city.

Kansas City Southern Railways, the line's owner, has already started construction in Fort Bend County.

"The tracks will be in service to Kendleton by early second quarter 2008. From there, construction will continue south," wrote C. Doniele Kane, KCS assistant vice president of corporate communications and community affairs, in an e-mail Friday to the Leader- News.

In Fort Bend County, news media outlets are already warning the public that assorted roads will soon be briefly closed to allow for the replacement of rail crossings.

The gravel rail beds were put down last year from Rosenberg to Kendleton in preparation for receiving the iron ribbons of rail.

At the same time, KCS announced plans of building a switch yard in Kendleton to allow for local rail service in Fort Bend, Wharton and Victoria counties.

While through trains would use the track to travel across the counties, a switch engine would roam the area picking up transport containers and pulling them to Kendleton to link with a through train.

By picking up cargo and linking it at a central site, the railway can avoid delaying the motoring public at each rail-using business while a large train is stopped then backed up to link cars.

With Fort Bend County work picking up steam, plans for Wharton County are in the works.

"Bridge work in Wharton County will begin later this spring," Kane said. "As bridge work progresses, some road bed and track work can commence. Additional construction will be done on the south end at Victoria to allow rail delivery of construction materials from the south."

The Texas Department of Transportation is still working on obtaining right of way for an El Campo bypass, she added, but at this point, that hasn't been obtained.

"We still remain confident that we can get the rail re-routed around El Campo," El Campo Mayor Phillip Spenrath said Monday. "I have been assured that there is still time to work this situation out to the betterment of the future safety, economic development and growth of El Campo's central business district.

"I truly believe that we need to keep the rail out of downtown," he added.

The local rail relocation effort is not tied to the state's Trans-Texas Corridor and currently does not have a specific route although discussions have centered around the U.S. 59 corridor.

KCS President and Chief Operating Officer Arthur L. Schoener was recorded as saying, "We will open the intermodal facility and we expect to have the (Victoria-Rosenberg) line open either in the later part of '08 or right after the first part of '09," during a recorded Feb. 5 phone conference on KCS fourth quarter earnings posted on the financial Web site Seeking Alpha.