Passenger rail service could be coming to Northeast Louisiana as soon as 2025. A conference held last week in Monroe discussed launching a study of implementing the service. Southern Rail Commission chairman Knox Ross says it’s an idea people have asked for and been working toward for 25 years. He says the proposal is to split the existing New Orleans-to-Washington DC route at Meridian, Mississippi…
“…and a section coming south would continue on to New Orleans, and a section would go across central Mississippi and Northern Louisiana and East Texas to Dallas/Fort Worth,” says Ross
He says the study should get underway soon, and should not take long to complete. He says Senator Bill Cassidy and state officials are fully behind the idea of rail service across North Louisiana…
“Shawn Wilson, Secretary of DOTD, is working towards securing a grant from the federal government to begin that process.”
Ross says once the study is complete, the rail line could be running by late 2025. He says there are also plans in the works for a passenger rail station in Ouachita Parish…
“They’ve got two parking lots right buy the Kansas City Southern line there – right by the Ouachita River Bridge – that are both perfect for a train station in downtown Monroe.”
Ross says Canadian Pacific – who owns the rail lines after a merger with Kansas City Southern – is “on board” with the plan. A passenger rail line between Baton Rouge and New Orleans is also in the works.
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