NEW ORLEANS – For more than a decade, members of the Southern Rail Commission have been lobbying for the return of the Gulf Coast passenger train service that was suspended when Hurricane Katrina damaged the rail lines east of New Orleans.
It looks like they’re finally getting their wish.
Amtrak announced last week that it will resume service between New Orleans and Mobile in 2022. There will be round trips each morning and evening with stops in Bay St. Louis, Gulfport, Biloxi and Pascagoula.
Rail boosters hope the new service will whet the public’s appetite at a time when the political stars are aligning to favor more passenger train projects the region.
‘A Great Deal of Appeal’
Advocates say the new Gulf Coast service, dubbed the “Mardi Gras Express” by GNO Inc. CEO Michael Hecht, may be an improvement for regional travelers over what was available pre-Katrina.
Before the storm, Amtrak’s Sunset Limited train line ran several times a week between Los Angeles and Orlando – but the trains passed through New Orleans at inconvenient times. The new schedule should be more useful to leisure and business travelers.
“There’s a great deal of appeal to people between here and Mobile who will do business or come in for a weekend because the train makes it just that much easier,” said John Spain, the executive vice president of the Baton Rouge Area Foundation and a member of the Southern Rail Commission, which was created in 1982 to advocate for train-related initiatives.
Spain said that “half the condos in Florida are probably owned by people in south Louisiana. And if you ride down there in the summer, you know just how bad the traffic is – and not just on weekends anymore. Now you’ll be able to get on a train with your bags, get off and get an Uber to go to your condo instead of driving. It just makes a lot of sense.”
For commuters, the train offers a chance to convert driving time into productive time.
“You’re not dealing with traffic; you’re not behind the wheel all day,” said Spain. “And these trains are going to have top notch WiFi. They’re going to have beverage and food service.”
Spain said there are a significant number of people who commute to the Gulf Coast from New Orleans who could use the service as well.
“There is shipbuilding in New Orleans, Mobile and Mississippi,” he said. “And those are welders and skilled workers who go to where the work is. So it wouldn’t surprise you that people who may have worked at Avondale now want to go to work at Ingalls (the shipbuilder in Pascagoula, Miss.). And we suggest to you that they would ride a train.”
Spain also thinks Gulf Coast residents will use the train to get close to Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport.
“In fact, I got a call from several people yesterday saying, ‘Do you think we could come into New Orleans from the Gulf Coast, get to the Union Passenger Terminal and then hop on another one to take it out to the airport?’ That’s a possibility,” he said. “We’re getting a little bit ahead of ourselves but we’d like to coordinate that.”
Building Bridges
The rails east of New Orleans have been safe and ready for use by passenger trains since at least 2015, when political leaders from Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama embarked on a whistle stop tour to promote the return of rail service. But before Amtrak operations resume next year, the freight operators who own the lines must build new bridges and “sidings” – low-speed track sections that connect to running lines – to avoid congestion caused by the increased traffic.
“If the train was running at midnight, like it used to, it didn’t bother anybody,” said Spain. “Now that we’re gonna have four paths a day going back and forth, there could be some congestion. A 2018 study from the University of Southern Mississippi said we’re going to have to do some infrastructure improvements.”
Spain said the Southern Rail Commission applied for federal funds and received $33 million to pay for these improvements and other associated costs. That amount has been matched by Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama state governments.
“So the funding is there for that,” said Spain. “And Amtrak’s announcement that they’re going to start service early next year is with the belief that improvements will be made to those places along the track that need it. Under the law, Amtrak is obligated to inform the freight railroads that they intend to start service so part of what you’re seeing happen here is they’re saying, ‘We’re ready to go. Get ready.’”
But does the potential debut of the ‘Mardi Gras Express’ mean that the return of a coast-to-coast Sunset Limited line is around the bend? Hard to say.
“Given enough time, it’s pretty obvious that it needs to connect back to Florida at some point,” said Spain. “Nobody’s talking about that yet. We’re just really excited that the New Orleans to Mobile route is getting started. We’ve proved its value. We proved that it can work with the freight lines that we can have these trains moving three or four times a day. And then you know, at some point someone will say, ‘Okay, with that success, let’s take it further.’”
New Orleans to Baton Rouge?
Having “Amtrak Joe” Biden in the White House, of course, has sparked optimism among rail boosters that the time is right for more projects. Increased high-speed rail is, after all, a big part of the President’s plan to reduce the country’s fossil fuel consumption and carbon emissions. And there’s no doubt about where Spain thinks the next high-speed rail line should be.
For years, he’s been championing the construction of a system to connect New Orleans and Baton Rouge. Former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal famously turned down federal money in 2009 to kickstart the project but the Southern Rail Commission has been lobbying away ever since to make it happen.
Gov. John Bel Edwards supports the plan, as does New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell and Baton Rouge Mayor Sharon Weston Broome. All the parish presidents along the proposed route are on board as well – and Spain said that a recent poll shows more than 70% of respondents approve of it.
Spain believes that when Biden announces his infrastructure plan, it will include money for passenger rail initiatives, which means Louisiana will have a chance to apply for bonds to pay for the work.
“I am hopeful that Biden will remember Louisiana and say, ‘We tried to give you the money,'” he said. “As a guy who has been working on this thing for a long time, I don’t think it’s ever been a better time in terms of funding.”
Planners want to use the Kansas City Southern rail line to connect New Orleans and Baton Rouge – with stops along the way in Kenner, LaPlace and Gonzales. They estimate it will cost between $300 to $400 million to replace bridges, buy or lease new equipment and make other necessary improvements so the line can accommodate high-speed rail.
“Freight trains basically run at 50 miles an hour,” said Spain. “This train is going to run at 90 miles an hour. If a train is coming down the track, it hits a switch which makes the gates go down and lights turn on. If you’re doing 50 miles an hour, that switch has to be so far before the intersection. If you’re doing 90, you’ve got to reconfigure it. It’s all those kinds of things.”
Spain said the New Orleans-Baton Rouge route could be helpful for daily commutes, leisure travel to and from both cities – and even emergencies.
“This train would be connecting the state’s two largest populations,” he said. “And in the event we have to evacuate New Orleans again, we’ll have a better way of doing it. So there’s a lot of upside to it.”
Note: The Southern Rail Commission has issued a notice of funding availability to solicit applications from communities along the federally designated Gulf Coast High Speed Rail corridor for restored or improved passenger rail stations and surrounding areas.
