state spent $4.2 million to restore the 50-year-old bridge, which reopened in summer 1997, pending implementation of Amtrak High Speed Rail service connecting at Florence, S.C.. The first train crossed the bridge June 22, 2001, but Carolina Southern, still leasing from the county, had to spend $900,000 to bring the section east of the waterway up to the standards needed for regular service. Downfall Though restored in the 1990s, much of the railroad was not in operation several decades later due to needed repairs. Carolina Southern Railroad was under a voluntary shutdown due to several bridges along the rail line requiring maintenance. The shutdown caused Carolina Southern to lay off nearly if not all of its employees, due to failing Federal Railroad Administration bridge inspections. On May 24, 2011, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) did a bridge inspection on both the Carolina Southern and Waccamaw Coastline Railroad (the Horry County portion of rail). A total 52 out of 187 bridges were inspected. and out of those inspected, seven bridges had critical defects. Carolina Southern voluntarily ceased operation on May 26, 2012, in order to hire a certified bridge engineer in order to inspect the critical bridges and prepare a plan for repairs and based on the engineer's recommendations, Carolina Southern made the required repairs to the problem bridges and resumed operations on August 8, 2011. On August 24, 2011, the FRA conducted another bridge inspection and at that time recommended the CSR cease operations until all of the bridges were repaired. The county later applied for a federal grant, with plans to spend $7.5 million on the county's rail line. However, the TIGER grant application failed, leaving Horry County and Carolina Southern seeking other funding methods to upgrade their tracks. In February 2012, Carolina Southern announced that they would again seek funding through a different TIGER grant level to get the most important problems fixed. The railroad sold off some of its older passenger equipment to an Iowa short line due to lack of use or need for passenger equipment. As a freight railroad, the passenger cars were strictly for show and used only occasionally for company events. On August 23, 2012, MyHorryNews reported that First Federal Bank was suing the owners of Carolina Southern Railroad because of unpaid debt of over $1 million. First Federal filed the lawsuit on August 7 against Ken Pippin; the debt stems from a