Page 47 - South Mississippi Living - August, 2018

FACING PAGE: MISSISSIPPI EXPORT
RAILROAD (MSE) employees.
ABOVE: MSE offers transportation solutions that include warehousing, transloading terminals, industrial switching and railcar storage.
ABOVE RIGHT TOP: Pipe transload at the Port of Pascagoula. ABOVE RIGHT MIDDLE: MSE employees are qualified railcar and locomotive technicians. RIGHT: FORMED IN 1922 the railroad has progressed over the years.
effective freight options across the US and into Canada and Mexico. Access to the Port of Pascagoula and the
Port of Mobile gives customers global ocean carrier options.
“Short lines like the Mississippi Export Railroad are independently owned, financed, and operated rail companies that cover relatively short distances as compared to the large regional networks operated by the major railroads, known as Class
1s,” says Luce. Mississippi Export Railroad is a full service short line railroad, which means that it does not just move freight over its track but rather it offers a full range of rail and transportation service solutions. Those services include industrial switching of cars, transloading between rail and truck or barge to provide non-rail served customers rail access, warehousing, full service railcar and locomotive repair, railcar storage, track construction and maintenance, and rail site design.
Mississippi Export Railroad primarily transports energy products, chemicals, wood products, metals, and aggregates. “We are extremely
well positioned to provide our customers direct rail access to all
of the U.S. as well as Canada and Mexico and to foreign countries through the Port of Pascagoula,” said Luce. “We also work closely with local and state economic development to market our shovel ready properties, which range in size from 20 acres to 1,200, for industrial development.”
Aside from economic and industrial growth, short lines play a vital
role in the day-to-day affairs of a community. “We touch so many products that consumers don’t think about,” Luce said. “People assume that when they flip a switch, the lights will turn on, or that gas will be at the station, or that plastic bags will be available at the grocery store. So many raw materials and finished goods move by rail, and do so more safely, less expensively, with less environmental impact, and with greater fuel efficiency.”
In terms of environmental impact, the numbers are staggering. “If
just 10 percent of the loads that
are currently moved by truck were
transported by rail instead, 1.5 billion gallons of fuel would be saved per year and greenhouse gas emissions would fall by roughly 17 million tons,” Luce stated. “That would be equivalent to taking 3.2 million cars off the highway for a year or planting 400 million trees.”
While trucks do play a vital role in partnering with railroads for short haul movement of products to and from non-rail served locations, Luce says that long haul truck shipment should be the exception and not the rule. “There’s still a great need for railroads and an opportunity for us to create an even bigger impact,” she says. “Today, for every one available truck driver on the road, there are six loads that need to be transported. The Railroad is here to work with the trucking industry to make sure customers’ needs are met in the
most reliable, cost efficient, and environmentally conscious way.”
MISSISSIPPI EXPORT RAILROAD
4519 McInnis Ave., Moss Point 228.475.3322 www.mserr.com
FOR MORE REFLECTIONS OF THE GULF COAST >> www.smliving.net August 2018 • SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living 47