To put it in the vernacular of today’s social media platforms, Kansas City Southern’s response to a “friend request” sent in October by a group of concerned Vicksburg residents was to ignore it.
Instead of tapping one button, attorneys for the railroad wrote a 5 ½ –page letter explaining why it wouldn’t be a good idea to be friends — especially to bring up such a crazy notion as letting people walk or bike on the old U.S. 80 bridge’s idled roadway.
And this time, KCS seems to talk down to the public in a response sent to various entities last week. Check out these lines the railroad chose on the future of what’s surely the most photographed backdrop in Vicksburg.
“Notwithstanding any community support for the development of a recreational area on the bridge, the railroad is in the best position to recognize the potential hazards involved in its operations and thus must look beyond the public appeal of developing the trail,” read part of a letter emailed to the designated point of contact for Friends of the Vicksburg Bridge and copied to Vicksburg and Warren County governing boards.
We know this stuff better than you, Mr. Joe Q. Cyclist. Shoo! We don’t want to hear about this anymore, shouts the conductor-in-chief. This is what we hear through the forest of words in the railroad’s response.
Here’s what’s most obvious about the bridge. Warren County owns the 84-year-old bridge. KCS has a lease with the county to run trains across it. Through a five-member panel appointed to oversee it, the county allows special events like the Over the River Run and various bicycle events for charity to take place, provided organizations have proper insurance. The county hasn’t asked and the railroad hasn’t objected to these occasional feel-good events on the old roadbed. The railroad is the prime funding source for routine maintenance on the bridge, via tolls paid per car that ride the lone rail crossing on the Mississippi River between Memphis and Baton Rouge.
At this point, the Friends group is riding the well-worn road of good intentions without a framework to show the public. Details were sharper in 2006, when the county had agreed to match a $2.14 million piece of a larger federal highway grant to make the park a reality. A project review at the time showed a 1,200-foot stretch for walkers and enough track space for cyclists to go all the way to the bridge’s end in Louisiana. KCS fired off letters to every person who walks around with either the state’s logo or a U.S. flag on their lapel, and that was that until October.
The Friends group says it’ll respond to the railroad’s safety concerns on the bridge that might not be publicly funded, but it’s publicly owned — for better or for worse. And the public deserves a say on the bridge’s future.