Cities of Marshall, Longview, and passenger rail and transportation organizations honor City of Mineola, Texas on its 150th Anniversary
Cities of Marshall, Longview, and passenger rail
and transportation organizations honor City of Mineola, Texas
on its 150th Anniversary over this past Labor Day weekend
Delegations from the East Texas Amtrak-Served Communities of Marshall and Longview, along with representatives from the Texas Eagle Marketing and Performance Organization (TEMPO), I-20 Corridor Council, and the East Texas Council of Governments/GoBus traveled via Amtrak’s Texas Eagle to Mineola last Saturday to honor the City of Mineola on the commemoration of its 150th Anniversary.
The delegation from Marshall, Longview and the rail and transportation organizations de-boarded the Amtrak train onto the Depot platform at the historic Mineola Depot and made a congratulatory presentation of a plaque and banner in honor of the 150th anniversary, as part of Mineola’s special celebration on the Labor Day weekend.
The presentation was made to Minola Mayor Jayne Lankford, Wood County Judge Kevin White, founding members of TEMPO and East Texas Corridor Council (now the I-20 Corridor Council) Barbara Musgraves and Mineola City Manager Mercy Rushing, Main Street Manager Doris Newman, and other representatives from Mineola and Wood County.
This special presentation to the City of Mineola by their fellow Amtrak-Served Communities and passenger rail organizations was designed not only to honor Mineola on this historic occasion but also to pay tribute to the rich and important shared railroad history of Mineola, Longview, and Marshall.
Christina Anderson, president of the Marshall Depot as well as longtime member of the I-20 Corridor Council and the Texas Eagle Marketing and Performance Organization (TEMPO), shared:
“Our delegation from Marshall, Longview, GoBus, TEMPO, and I-20 Corridor Council is designed not only to honor our dear friends and colleagues in Mineola and Wood County on this memorable and historic occasion, it’s also designed to continue to raise awareness about how people can use Amtrak and GoBus as enjoyable and cost-saving transportation options as they make their plans to travel to festivals, concerts, events, historic sites, shopping, restaurants, and other places in our beautiful East Texas region and beyond.”
Shawn Hara, who serves as the Director of Community Destinations for the City of Longview and who brought his family on the trip to Mineola, said: "Marshall, Longview, and Mineola's histories are tied to the development of the railroad. We are very fortunate to have Amtrak daily passenger rail service connect our communities, with opportunities to travel between each city and explore. Congratulations to Mineola on their anniversary and we are thrilled to be able to celebrate by ‘Sidetracking in Mineola’ this weekend.”
Mineola City Manager Mercy Rushing and Barbara Musgraves, who were instrumental in the efforts in the mid-1990s to get an Amtrak stop at Mineola, shared remarks at the presentation. They underscored that teachers have been some of the strongest supporters of Amtrak.
Ms. Musgraves shared: “The teachers wanted Amtrak here for the children, for kids to know about passenger rail and travel.”
Ms. Rushing added how short trips between our East Texas Amtrak-Served Communities and Dallas/Fort Worth can be not only fun but educational: “We’d take the students to Longview and Marshall and bring them back. And those kids loved it. It educated them, plus it let them know, early on, that they have other choices of transportation such as rail.”
Christy Fowler, Transportation Program Specialist for the East Texas Council of Governments (ETCOG), participated in the presentation ceremony representing GoBus. GoBus provides bus service in the 14-County region that ETCOG serves, including Wood County (Mineola), Smith County (Tyler), Gregg County (Longview and Kilgore), and Harrison County (Marshall).
Christina Anderson shared in the presentation: “We, in our 14-county East Texas region, are very fortunate to have GoBus which is a safe, reliable, cost-effective, and state of the art transportation option available to us to travel throughout our region, including passengers at our Amtrak stations being able to receive point-to-point service from, say, the Mineola Amtrak station to downtown Tyler or Longview Multi-Modal Transportation Center to their homes, or other destinations in our region which they may wish to reach.”
Mayor Jayne Lankford shared heartfelt appreciation, on behalf of the City of Mineola, for the plaque that the delegation presented.
The plaque inscription read: “With deep appreciation to Mineola and Wood County, Texas for your outstanding contribution to passenger and freight rail and for the rich and important railroad history that you share with your fellow Amtrak-Served Communities in East Texas—Longview and Marshall—and all communities on Amtrak’s Texas Eagle route, as well as the proposed I-20 Corridor long-distance passenger rail connection between Dallas/Fort Worth and Atlanta, through Mineola (also serving Tyler), Longview, and Marshall, Texas and northern Louisiana. Best wishes on your Sesquicentennial!”
Wood County Judge Kevin White, who served previously as Mineola Mayor, shared his commitment to expanding passenger rail in Mineola and Wood County not only with Amtrak’s current Texas Eagle but also with the proposed I-20 Corridor long-distance passenger rail connection between Dallas/Fort Worth and Atlanta, through Mineola (also serving Tyler), Longview and Marshall, shared:
“My dad was conductor for Texas Pacific, Missouri Pacific, Union Pacific, but he also was with Amtrak. And Amtrak would stop at a lot of the towns through here…My dad would work in the Mineola-Shreveport pool and go to Dallas/Fort Worth. So, it (the I-20 Corridor long-distance train) is very important to me to not only to maintain the history of all the railroad in Mineola but as a viable economic solution to this area. Because the railroad is what made me. My dad was part of that and I feel a responsibility to keep that. Wood County is very committed to this growth.”
After spending the afternoon enjoying the sites, dining, shopping and other activities in Mineola, the delegation used the services of GoBus to ride back to the Longview and Marshall Depots, where they boarded Amtrak train in the morning.
