AL: Gulf Coast Amtrak project faces further delays, aims for summer launch

Amtrak’s return to the Gulf Coast is expected to come this summer, and not this spring or anywhere close to reaching a Mardi Gras time frame that officials had hoped for last fall.

If anything, Amtrak’s revival along the Gulf Coast could coincide with the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the devastating storm that knocked the service off line in 2005.

The lack of a confirmed time frame, and the continued delays has some passenger rail advocates concerned about stunting momentum about a project that has been the subject of lawsuits, negotiations, and high-profile hearings and votes for close to a decade.

“We are very, very hopeful that this latest timetable will kind of stick,” said Jim Mathews, president & CEO with the Washington, D.C.-based Rail Passengers Association. “But I wouldn’t be surprised to see it get delayed again, and that’s a shame. The longer it goes, the longer we don’t have the service, and the less excited people get for the potential that is real for this service.”

Complicated project

Much of the work needed to get Amtrak trains running twice weekly between New Orleans and Mobile – with four stops in coastal Mississippi – involves track work and a new train depot in downtown Mobile.

But the project is also contingent on getting operation agreements signed by the Departments of Transportation in Louisiana and Mississippi. According to a Southern Rail Commission representative, those approvals are expected.

Here are the latest updates:

• Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson, during his State of the City/County Address, confirmed it will be summer by the time the trains start rolling. Last fall, the Mobile City Council endorsed a $3.064 million expenditure to support the train’s operations over three years. At the time, there were hopes the service could begin in time for the Super Bowl on Feb. 9 at the Ceasars Superdome in New Orleans. Amtrak officials, though, said the Super Bowl might have been too “ambitious.” There were also hopes the service could begin in time for Mardi Gras, which is on March 4 and is a major celebration across the Gulf Coast but especially in New Orleans and Mobile. Neither of those dates are likely. Said Matthews, “Think about how great it would have been, for example, to have this running in time for the Super Bowl? It was plausible a year ago. Now it’s not.”
• Amtrak confirmed on Thursday that a contractor will deploy soon for the interim platform construction and supports Stimpson’s summertime start for the service.
• The City of Mobile has done all it needs to do regarding easement and permit approvals, according to spokesperson Jason Johnson.
• CSX is charged with building a new 3,000-foot layover track to support the future Amtrak station, and the company was granted an easement from the council in September to do so. But so far, there project is not under construction. According to a CSX spokesperson, “all stakeholders are working to begin Gulf Coast passenger service as expeditiously as possible. At this time, we don’t have any additional updates to share.”
• A $21.1 million federal Restoration & Enhancement (R&E) grant was awarded earlier this month for the project, which will be used to supplement the costs to operate the train. Louisiana and Mississippi transportation officials have to still sign the agreements to support the operation agreements. According to Knox Ross, chairman of the Southern Rail Commission – which has long supported the project – those signings are “imminent,” and represent the final funding requirements needed to operate the train for at least three years.

“I never imagined it would be this hard,” said Ross, referring to the many hoops and delays in getting the service restarted. The Gulf Coast project has been part of discussions for years, and the Mobile City Council has twice voted in support of the service’s operations – in early 2020, and again in August 2024.

“We are going to do it,” Ross said. “I think it will be very successful. But we have to get over this last hump which is getting everyone to finalize what they have to do.”

The naming of the train also hasn’t occurred. The train’s brand, features and name were expected to be rolled out last fall, perhaps around Halloween.

Officials had expressed some interest in having a Mardi Gras-themed train, but that has not been confirmed nor has anything related to the train’s amenities have been announced.

“The name and the date kind of go hand-in-hand,” said David Clark, president & CEO with Visit Mobile. “The name of the train is how you then develop the experience on the train. It’s not just a ride, it’s an experience.”

Mathews said he wished Amtrak, and others, would find ways to gin up enthusiasm for the project. He said releasing some of the train’s features – such as the cuisine on board – through press conferences and other announcements would be helpful in keeping the project in front of the public’s eye.

“They have this sense that a lot of these things (delaying the start of the service) is out of their control, so they are saying, ‘that’s a CSX thing or the city or whoever,’” Mathews said. “They just absent themselves from the conversation. I think that is a mistake. It’s their service. They need to be out there waving the flag for it.”

He said that responsibility has been left up to the SRC. The project last received a significant amount of attention in October when outgoing U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg visited Mobile for the project’s groundbreaking ceremony.

Amtrak has a history of not releasing details, such as a start date or the fares, until right before the service restarts. The last time Amtrak started a similar, state-supported route – the St. Paul’s Minn.-to-Chicago Borealis – the operations began on May 21, 2024, and only 10 days after Amtrak announced the official start date.

Frustrations, curveballs

Bryan Fuenmayor, who led a grassroots group of Mobilians pushing for the Amtrak service, said there are people who are skeptical the service will begin, or that entities that once opposed the project will “toss curveballs and try to delay it further.”

The project had been the subject of hotly contested case before the U.S. Surface Transportation Board, which was dismissed in November. Amtrak filed the case against CSX and Norfolk Southern, the two freight operators along the Gulf Coast route between Mobile and New Orleans. The Alabama State Port Authority was also vehemently opposed to the service out of worries that the addition of two daily passenger trains would disrupt port business.

An agreement was reached in that case in November 2022, with millions of dollars in federal grant money going toward improving the rail line to accommodate freight and port activities. The agreement also meant that Amtrak service would resume, though operational support was still needed from state governments. In Alabama, the financial support is coming from a combination of city, port, and state funding.

The delays in the project prompted the STB, last February, to admonish Amtrak and question why the project was taking so long to get started.

Fuenmayor said the delays are fueling skepticism but also hope that the project will begin sometime this year.

“Those are the two big things,” he said about Mobile supporters of Amtrak. “But it’s frustrating. It’s taken so long for this to happen.”

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