The MidSouth Rail Corporation is a

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

line operated by

Kansas City Southern Railway The Kansas City Southern Railway Company is an American Class I railroad. Founded in 1887, it operates in 10 midwestern and southeastern U.S. states: Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and ...

(KCS) as a result of the January 1, 1994, acquisition; KCS began operating over MidSouth's line on January 11, 1994. The line ran from Shreveport, Louisiana, going east across

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

, and across the state of

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

, running through the cities of Vicksburg,

Jackson Jackson may refer to: People and fictional characters * Jackson (name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the surname or given name Places Australia * Jackson, Queensland, a town in the Maranoa Region * Jackson North, Qu ...

, Meridian, and

Artesia, Mississippi Artesia is a town in Lowndes County, Mississippi. The population was 440 at the 2010 census. History Artesia was originally ''Artesia Junction'', a junction point on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad. During the railroad's construction in the 1850s, a ...

, then across the

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County , LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham , area_total_km2 = 135,765 ...

state line to

Tuscaloosa Tuscaloosa ( ) is a city in and the seat of Tuscaloosa County in west-central Alabama, United States, on the Black Warrior River where the Gulf Coastal and Piedmont plains meet. Alabama's fifth-largest city, it had an estimated population of ...

, and finally (via Norfolk Southern Railway trackage rights) into

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...

. Midsouth had two other branches, with one to Counce, Tennessee, and a disconnected line from Gulfport to Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Total mileage was worth of mostly former

Illinois Central Gulf The Illinois Central Railroad , sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, was a railroad in the Central United States, with its primary routes connecting Chicago, Illinois, with New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama. A line also c ...

's east-west Shreveport - Meridian main line.

Operations

On March 31, 1986, MidSouth Rail Corp. was created to purchase of Illinois Central Gulf Railroad (ICG), with start up operations on April 1, 1986. Edward L. Moyers served as the railroad's first president. MSRC was mostly the ex-ICG route between Meridian, Mississippi, and Shreveport, Louisiana, with the earliest segment of this line being built in 1833 by the Clinton and Vicksburg Railroad. On September 8, 1987, MSRC acquired the North Louisiana and Gulf Railroad and its subsidiary, Central Louisiana and Gulf Railroad, These properties were combined as subsidiary MidLouisiana Rail Corporation. On April 14, 1988, MidSouth merged with the Gulf and Mississippi Railroad, itself an ICG spinoff. MSRC operated this property under the name of SouthRail.

Kansas City Southern takeover

On January 11, 1994,

took over operations of all of Midsouth Rail Corp.'s lines, creating its Meridian Corridor to connect with the Norfolk Southern Railway.

References

Predecessors of the Kansas City Southern Railway Defunct Louisiana railroads Defunct Mississippi railroads Railway companies established in 1986 Railway companies disestablished in 1993 1986 establishments in Mississippi 1994 mergers and acquisitions {{Mississippi-transport-stub