Beyond Mega-Projects: A New Model for Rural Prosperity
Rural communities face unique economic challenges that conventional development approaches often fail to address. While urban centers pursue large-scale industrial projects, rural areas need a different strategy that leverages existing and new rail infrastructure to create distributed economic opportunities across entire regions.
The Mississippi Blueprint
OnTrackNorthAmerica’s work with the Port of Rosedale, Mississippi, offers a powerful case study in rail-enabled rural development. By reimagining the dormant 30-mile Great River Railroad (GTR), this initiative demonstrates how targeted infrastructure investment can transform rural economies while addressing pressing environmental and transportation challenges.
Ten Principles for Rural Rail Development
- Focus on Smaller Businesses: Target enterprises typically overlooked by traditional economic development efforts.
- Nurture Existing Businesses: Build on current businesses and their expansion opportunities in addition to pursuing new enterprises.
- Aggregate Regional Demand: Combine multiple smaller shipping needs to create viable infrastructure improvements.
- Develop Natural Resources: Emphasize opportunities to transport and distribute local materials and products.
- Address Transportation Gaps: Identify and solve logistical challenges that limit rural growth.
- Think of Whole Systems: Develop plans that advance entire industrial ecosystems and supply chains.
- Embrace Regional Planning: Design infrastructure across corridors and regions, not just individual projects.
- Repurpose Existing Assets: Utilize brownfields and inactive infrastructure rather than starting from scratch.
- Create Synergistic Connections: Link existing and new businesses as suppliers and customers.
- Bridge Modal Divides: Coordinate rail, water, and highway transportation networks.
Environmental and Economic Benefits
Rail transportation offers compelling advantages for rural communities:
- Decreased infrastructure maintenance costs (one truck causes road damage equivalent to 9,500 passenger vehicles)
- Reduced congestion on highways
- Significantly lower carbon emissions for freight movement
- Enhanced marketability for businesses seeking environmental certifications
- Space efficiency (a one-mile train replaces a 27-mile truck convoy)
The Collaborative Path Forward
Success requires a new level of coordination between stakeholders who traditionally operate independently:
- State leadership to establish effective relationships with Class I railroads
- Economic development professionals identify and support smaller enterprises
- Public planners engage closely with business owners and transportation service providers
- Public–private funding models that leverage state and federal resources
- Cross-boundary planning that recognizes that supply chains extend beyond jurisdictional lines
By reimagining rural development through the lens of rail connectivity, communities can create sustainable economic growth that serves current and future generations.