TX: Lawmaker puts date on expected resumption of Amtrak Gulf Coast line

While effort to establish a high-speed bullet train aimed at connecting Dallas to Houston is moving slower than an inner-city freight, one Gulf Coast leader said the restoration of an Amtrak line spanning the region seems to be more on track.

U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi said recently that he expects Amtrak's Gulf Coast service to start back up this June. The 145-mile route will connect the coastal Alabama city of Mobile to New Orleans, with stops in cities such as Biloxi and Gulfport, Mississippi.

While back in August there were whispers that Amtrak might want to get the work finished ahead of Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans, work started in October on a new Mobile train station. There, workers have been installing a new layover track, a place where trains can wait without blocking the main line. More recently, AL.com reported the presence of fencing around the train stop.

"I am thrilled to see construction begin on the Amtrak station and layover track in Mobile, which is one of the final steps needed for services to resume," Wicker told AL.com Feb. 12. "I am hopeful that the trains will be operational in June of this year. This investment is finally reaching the finish line."

CSX, which is building the 3,000-foot layover track, told AL.com that contractors are on site but wouldn't confirm any timeline details. Neither Amtrak nor the advocacy group Southern Rail Commission gave AL.com timeline details. SRC Chairman Knox Ross told Chron in August that Wicker "has been the champion" of the Gulf Coast service restoration. In January, during comments celebrating the confirmation of Sean Duffy to lead the U.S. Department of Transportation, Wicker invited the new secretary to Mississippi for the relaunch of Gulf Coast service, which he specified would be in June.

The Gulf Coast route had been dormant since Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Before Katrina, the route was referred to as the Gulf Coast Limited, an extension of Amtrak's Sunset Limited line. Houstonians know the Sunset Limited, as it connects the city westward to San Antonio and eastward to New Orleans.

Ross told Chron in August that bringing back the Gulf Coast route has been a decades-long effort with efforts ramping up over the last 12 years or so. He cited both Wicker and the late U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi as leaders in moving the project forward.

"These are large investment projects, and we've been able to hammer out relationships with those host railroads," Ross told Chron. "It's a lot of work, and many times we thought that this wasn't going to happen."

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