The railroad line between Meridian and Demopolis remained unfinished until Dec. 10, 1862. Even then, there was no bridge over the Tombigbee River, so anyone traveling east of the river has to take a steamboat to cover the miles between Dempolis and McDowell's Bluff.
A subsidy bill to complete the route of the Alabama and Tennessee River R.R. was introduced in Congress on Aug. 20, 1862. The route between Rome GA and the Alabama state line was graded, but the line remained incomplete at the war's end.
The concept of a rail line between Selma and Montgomery failed to stir much interest.
Robert C. Black III, Railroads of the Confederacy, pp. 158-59.