Ironically, the bus actually passed through Meridian and made a stop at Meridian's Union Station, where my train was supposed to deposit me had it not been cancelled. So why didn't I just take the bus to Meridian then and continue on as planned? Because unfortunately, it wasn't just one day's train that was cancelled but several, so to continue onward from Meridian I still would have had to take an onward bus to Jackson to catch a train to New Orleans (this bus continues to Dallas, NOT New Orleans). This would have required an extra day in the trip, which I didn't have.