News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Cookeville City Council considering a plan to request financial support from the state for local railroads.
City Manager James Mills said he was contacted by the town of Monterey with a request to support the town’s efforts to get funding for the Nashville and Eastern Railroad. Mills said this funding would help replace the rail ties from Carthage to Monterey, all of which are in poor condition.
“The thought process on this is that the rail lines, if they function, are an economic engine, no pun intended for trains, for the state,” Mills said. “And right now our line is in rough shape.”
Council Member Eric Walker said he wants to know if the city would benefit more from turning the railroad into a rail trail and using the money that funds the railroad elsewhere. Walker said he is specifically interested determining if it is worth investing in the portion of the railroad from Cookeville to Monterey.
The council will consider making the official request to the state at its Thursday meeting.
“I look at this and say well, yeah, that would be nice to have functioning rail,” Council Member Chad Gilbert said. “But then I also look at it and go I can’t see how twenty million carved up a hundred different ways over a bunch of, sure, I want to say yeah, help us. But at the same time, and then does that even materialize?”
Mills said the official request is for the state to fully fund the Transportation Equity Fund and specifically allocate $20 million annually to support short line railroads across the state. Mills said the Nashville and Eastern Railroad is bringing in enough revenue to maintain itself but not to replace or improve anything over time.
“The twenty million, again, that’s for all short lines,” Mills said. “According to (Rail Authority Member Dr. Charles Womack), what he will be hopeful for is that the Nashville and Eastern, the short line that runs through Smith County, Putnam County, they would hope to get between five hundred thousand and a million dollars of it.”
Mills said he assumes the process to convert and abandon the railroad would be complicated and involves the federal government. Mayor Laurin Wheaton said Monterey may be looking for the support because the town has lost out on business opportunities in the past due to its lack of rail options.
“I think we’ve discussed that before, too,” Wheaton said. “That we’ve had some companies looking here, we haven’t qualified, yeah, because we don’t have rail.”
Recreational trains used to visit both Baxter and Monterey but stopped because of slow travel caused by the condition of the lines in Smith and Putnam Counties.
