DULUTH, Minn.– In 2020, the Lake Superior and Mississippi Railroad was put on pause because of the pandemic. And now in 2021, they won’t be saying ‘all aboard’ just yet.
The Lake Superior & Mississippi Railroad will be staying in the station this year due to cleanup work being done on the U.S. Steel Site in Morgan Park that goes through their track.
“The amount of clear route we’d have from here to that point where we’re cut off is not far enough to be economically feasible to operate the railroad,” said LS&M Railroad President Joel Manns.
The Environmental Protection Agency is giving some aid to the railroad but local donations have kept the organization afloat. Manns understands the need to clean up the area but is disappointed the attraction that welcomes more than 6,000 tourists won’t be on the tracks until 2022.
“We lost money last year because not of all our expenses went away buy the income was zero,” said Manns. “Which makes our being shut down this year more of a problem for us.”
The railroad also got some funds from Union Pacific, Canadian National, Burlington northern Santa Fe Railroads, and Enbridge, along with private donations.
“That money is helping us keep busy so while we’re not running the train we can still have our volunteers be engaged,” said Manns. “We’ve been doing patchwork for a lot of number of years taking one or two boards or one piece. Now we can really do it right.”
50 part-time volunteers work for the tourist attraction every summer. Instead of assisting passengers, staff are repairing equipment including rebuilding the train’s Safari Car.
Longtime volunteers are glad they can be helping the railroad come back new and improved for the next season.
“It’s everything. That’s why we have some of our people here just coming to view what the project is. We have ongoing projects and we hope that our people that normally work on the train will volunteer in the off times,” said Special Projects Manager Lynne Hall, who’s been a volunteer since 2006.
If you’d like to make a donation to help the railroad with operations and repairs, you can click here.
"local" - Google News
June 04, 2021 at 09:36AM
https://ift.tt/3pjcXGy
Lake Superior & Mississippi River Railroad Closed in 2021 Due to Local Environmental Cleanup - FOX 21 Online
"local" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2WoMCc3
https://ift.tt/2KVQLik
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Lake Superior & Mississippi River Railroad Closed in 2021 Due to Local Environmental Cleanup - FOX 21 Online"
Post a Comment