State lawmakers are having second thoughts about a recentrailroad agreement that would transfer ownership of threeMississippi rail lines and are taking steps to ensure the tracksare not permanently closed in the deal.

The Mississippi House of Representatives passed a set ofresolutions by majority vote Friday morning urging the SurfaceTransportation Board not to approve the transfer of 252 miles ofrail lines from owner Canadian National to newly formed companiesNatchez Railway LLC and Grenada Railway LLC unless the permanenceof the lines is guaranteed.

Officials are worried the new owners – which are affiliated withSalt Lake City’s A&K Railroad Materials Inc., a railroadsalvage company – will scrap the lines after a two-year maintenanceperiod in the sale agreement ends. The transaction, which was filedin mid-May, requires a 30-day waiting period before finalizationand officials are trying to come to an agreement before that periodends.

“We want to make sure that if these lines are going to be soldthat someone wants to operate them on a permanent basis,” saidHouse Transportation Committee Chairman Warner McBride. “Theselines are of tremendous importance. It’s a time when there’s a lotof focus on rail and we don’t want someone to come along all of asudden and buy up our line and, if they’re not successfulimmediately, try to take it up.”

CN announced the sale of the railroads – including the 66-mileeast/west track between Natchez and Brookhaven – as a way to keepthe unprofitable tracks open. The deal requires the two new LLCs tocontinue operating the tracks for two years, but makes nostipulations beyond that point.

If the LLCs were to attempt to scrap the lines, the state couldintervene. The Mississippi Code gives the state the power toacquire any railroad that is proposed to be abandoned ordiscontinued and to operate those lines.

“But we hope not to get to that point,” McBride said. “We’retrying to head that off. We want this company to know if they dopurchase it, we support them and we want to be a partner with themto try and make it successful.”

Natchez Railway LLC Vice President Mike VanWagenen stressed hiscompany’s independence from A&K Railroad Materials Inc. He saidthe company’s primary focus on the Natchez-to-Brookhaven line wouldbe freight, primarily that of Bude’s American RailcarIndustries.

“We’ll look at other things that might work there as well,”VanWagenen said. “We’ll also see if we can get some trucktraffic.”

Delton Butler, an officer with American Railcar Industries, saidthe scrapping of the east/west line would drive the company out ofBude. He said the company employs 89 people from all over SouthwestMississippi.

“It would put us out of here,” he said. “Whether we’d gosomewhere else locally or not, I don’t know.”

For Lincoln County officials, Linbrook Business Park – the400-acre industrial site nearing completion at the west end ofBrookway Boulevard – is the crux of the argument.

John Turner, the director of economic development for EntergyMississippi, said railroads are crucial for industrialrecruitment.

“To have a legitimate shot at a large prospect, 99 percent ofthe time you’ve got to have a railway to meet the qualifications,”he said. “Entergy Mississippi certifies sites and pre-qualifiesthem, and to even meet the criteria for site certifications, you’vegot to have rail. It’s very unusual that a large industrial projectwould come anywhere where you don’t have rail.”

Brookhaven’s District 92 Rep. Becky Currie helped sound thealarm for a transportation committee public hearing Thursday. Itwas attended by congressional delegation spokesmen andrepresentatives of several industrial leaders and stateagencies.

She said the purpose of the meeting and subsequent legislationis simply to make sure Mississippi communities will benefit.

“We are not stating this company may not have good intentions,but we want to make sure they intend to keep this railway serviceoperable,” she said. “Once it’s gone, it’s gone forever. If youlose a railway, you lose all abilities to have any type ofindustrial mega-site and jobs are lost. We just cannot lose what wehave.”

Not all the involved parties are worried about the transaction.Keith Plunkett, a constituent services worker for U.S. Rep. GreggHarper who attended the public hearing, said he’s been assured theLLCs have no intentions of scrapping their newly acquired raillines.

“They’re actually moving in new locomotives and investing tomake these lines profitable,” he said. “If we can keep itprofitable, there’s no reason for them to move on, no need tosalvage those lines.”

Melissa Medley, communications director for the MississippiDevelopment Authority, said her agency isn’t in a position tospeculate on what would happen to the railroads after the two-yearstipulation in the sale agreement ends. MDA was represented atThursday’s public hearing.

“We will continue to build a relationship with the new owners sowe can better understand how we can affect the relationship betweenthem and our existing industry,” she said.