Rail service set to return to city
Hear the train acoming?
By SHANNON CRABTREE

Evans Park in El Campo was once the town's rail station. The Prairie Switch Depot in the park serves as a monument to the transportation system which gave the community life. Soon, rail is scheduled to return thanks to Kansas City Southern Railways and the lure of a direct route between Mexico and Canada with switching ability to all points in the United States.

Started as a railhead community, the city of El Campo may soon see the mighty iron giants' return courtesy of Kansas City Southern Railways and the lure of NAFTA.

Local developers are hoping the trains' roar will serve as a rallying call for new industries as well as provide a cheaper avenue for agricultural exports from Wharton County.

It's been almost 14 years since former rail operator Southern Pacific pulled the steel ribbons from the corridor running 82 miles between Rosenberg and Victoria.

Now KCS owns tracks from Canada to the heart of Mexico and only the small three-county section including El Campo lack a ribbon of rail. The company applied for $100 million in federal loans last June and had started construction in Fort Bend County to restore rail service.

The current plan calls for the new track to hit Victoria by the end of 2008, although trains may not start running until early 2009.

"This is a very strategic corridor for South Texas. We need the capacity and we are trying to take trucks off the highway. It's cheaper by the mile to put (cargo) on steel rail than rubber tires," KCS Senior Vice President Warren Erdman told local community leaders.

El Campo Mayor Phillip Spenrath has been in negotiations examining the possibility of rerouting the returning rail from the center of the city to the highway bypass.

Restoring the line eliminates the need for KCS to operate some 160 miles of Union Pacific-controlled track between Rosenberg and Victoria via Flatonia. It also creates a NAFTA railway for KCS from Canada to Mexico.

And with gasoline prices remaining high, local offi- cials see the energy-saving trains and intermodal transportation systems as growing in popularity.