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Rails to the River: Louisiana's Port-Rail Connection
Politics, Profit, and Public Investment on the Gulf Coast

Book Details
About this book:

Rails to the River: Louisiana's Port-Rail Connection Where the Mississippi meets the Gulf, the nation’s freight destiny was forged not by market forces alone, but by the calculated wielding of public power. *Rails to the River* unveils the hidden engine of Louisiana’s commerce: a century of political dealmaking, bond deals, and sovereign leverage that stitched deepwater ports to the continental rail grid. From Huey Long’s bridges to the modern infrastructure bank, this is the definitive account of how a resource-constrained state turned taxpayer capital into the backbone of global supply chains—and why the bill is still coming due.

Peeling back the ballast, the book exposes the friction between six converging Class I railroads and the public authorities determined to break their terminal monopolies. You’ll witness the birth of the New Orleans Public Belt, the legislative invention of the Port Priority Program, and the high-stakes choreography of federal TIGER, INFRA, and RRIF funds that rebuilt the Gulf after Katrina. It is a masterclass in intergovernmental finance, revealing how severance taxes, revolving loans, and credit enhancements became the invisible syntax of American freight mobility.

Yet the tracks run through more than ledgers. They cut through fenceline communities and sinking marshlands, forcing a reckoning with environmental justice and climate resilience that no balance sheet can ignore. As sea levels rise and supply chains fracture, *Rails to the River* asks the urgent question: can the financial architecture of the twentieth century survive the hydrology of the twenty-first? Essential reading for policymakers, logistics professionals, and anyone who wonders how the goods on their shelves actually arrive—and who pays for the ride.

Table of Contents:
  • Introduction
  • Chapter 1 The River and the Iron: Antecedents of Intermodal Power in Louisiana
  • Chapter 2 Kingfish Logistics: Huey P. Long and the Public Belt Vision
  • Chapter 3 The Bridge That Huey Built: Spanning the Mississippi for Rail and Road
  • Chapter 4 Postwar Bottlenecks: Modernizing the Crescent City's Terminals
  • Chapter 5 The Dock Board Mandate: State Sovereignty and Port Governance
  • Chapter 6 Petrochemicals and Boxcars: Industrial Expansion Along the River Corridors
  • Chapter 7 Severance Taxes and Steel Rails: Early Mechanisms of State Funding
  • Chapter 8 Deregulation and Disruption: The Staggers Rail Act's Impact on the Gulf
  • Chapter 9 The Genesis of the Port Priority Program: Legislative Bargains of the Late 1980s
  • Chapter 10 Capital Outlay Politics: The Annual Scramble for Infrastructure Dollars
  • Chapter 11 Intermodal Friction: Class I Railroads and Wharfside Politics
  • Chapter 12 Red Stick Transit: Connecting the Capital City's Inland Terminals
  • Chapter 13 The Lake Charles Gateway: Rail Infrastructure for Energy and Agriculture
  • Chapter 14 South Louisiana's Bulk Terminals: Grain, Coal, and Intermodal Arbitrage
  • Chapter 15 Federal Seed Money and State Leverage: The Arrival of TIGER and INFRA Grants
  • Chapter 16 The RRIF Program in Practice: Federal Loans and Local Matching Funds
  • Chapter 17 Hurricane Katrina and the Reconstruction of the Gulf Rail Network
  • Chapter 18 Public Debt, Private Benefit: Assessing the Return on State Subsidies
  • Chapter 19 Short Lines and Switching Yards: The Unsung Connectors of Port Commerce
  • Chapter 20 Chemical Corridor Logistics: Rail Relocation and Public Investment along the Mississippi
  • Chapter 21 The Modern Infrastructure Bank: Revolving Loans and Credit Enhancements
  • Chapter 22 Port Fourchon and Beyond: Highway-Rail-Waterway Integration in the Deep Delta
  • Chapter 23 Environmental Justice and the Right-of-Way: Communities in the Path of Rail Expansion
  • Chapter 24 The International Intermodal Center: Global Supply Chains and Gulf Competitiveness
  • Chapter 25 High Stakes on the High Water: The Future of Freight Finance in a Changing Climate
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Author:

Judith K. Watson

Published By:

MixCache.com Extended Catalog

Type:

Nonfiction

Date Published:

October 23, 2026

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