A team of East Mississippi economic development officials say 2,000 jobs held by Clarke and Wayne county residents depend on the repair and upgrade of a 55-mile stretch of railroad track.

Officials with the East Mississippi Business Development Corp., as well as economic development districts and boards of supervisors in Clarke and Wayne counties, are hard at work on the project. Their task: Obtain federal funding to repair the Meridian Southern Railway line that links Waynesboro and Meridian