Taylor co-sponsors bill to study return of passenger train: "When a measure requiring Amtrak to formulate a plan to restore the Sunset Limited passenger train through South Mississippi passed a House committee last week, local and state proponents applauded.
With both traffic congestion and fuel prices on a seemingly endless northward path, they said, the time is right.
'I might have been a little more pessimistic (about the measure becoming law) a year ago than I am today,' said Larry 'Butch' Davis, executive director of the Mississippi Department of Transportation, as he was traveling Thursday down Interstate 10 toward New Orleans with 18-wheelers speeding past.
'Freight is doubling every 10 years on our highways, so the value of rail freight has grown dramatically,' Davis said.
Highways are expected to become even more crowded, and fuel more expensive, and that makes passenger rail more desirable too, he said, noting that the United States is probably 'the worst country in the world' when it comes to providing good mass transit.
Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Bay St. Louis, is among those set on changing that."
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