New US railroad leader: Amtrak coming to Gulf Coast is a priority. Here’s the latest.
Restoring passenger rail service across the Gulf Coast is one of his top two or three priorities, the new deputy administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration said Friday.
Amit Bose told members of the Southern Rail Commission he made that goal clear to the Federal Railroad staff when he arrived at his new job on Jan. 20.
“I was lucky enough to ride a part of that test run back in 2016,” he said.
In February 2016, officials traveled on an Amtrak train from New Orleans to Mobile and into Florida in a two-day trip designed to gauge interest in restoring passenger service along the northern Gulf. They were met at cities along the way with bands, crowds and cheers.
“I’m looking forward to doing that again, for real this time, and not calling it a test,” Bose said.
The goal is to get the Amtrak trains rolling in seven months — by January 2022. Amtrak trains will stop in Bay St. Louis, Gulfport, Biloxi and Pascagoula as they travel between New Orleans and Mobile, Alabama. The schedule calls for two trains each way, each day.
“We’re excited about where we are today and we’re looking forward to the future,” David Handera, Amtrak vice president of stations and accessibility, said Friday.
Upgrades to the stations are happening in two phases, he said. Work has already begun in phase one. Temporary platforms compliant with the American with Disabilities Act will allow passengers to easily board, he said.
Where possible they will make use of existing platforms. In Pascagoula, a temporary platform will be installed in phase one and a new platform in phase two.
The announcements of the grants for the second phase 2 — the full reconstruction of all the platforms — is scheduled for July 14, said John Robert Smith, mayor of Meridian and chairman of Transportation for America.
The return of passenger train service by January still has some tracks to clear.
A petition to restore the route that was damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 is before the Surface Transportation Board that oversees railroads.
U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, R-Miss., sent the STB a letter of full support.
“Implementing twice-daily service between New Orleans and Mobile would provide a huge economic lift to Bay St. Louis, Gulfport, Biloxi, and Pascagoula, and other cities along Mississippi’s Gulf Coast,” Wicker said, and would he the culmination of Mississippi’s recovery from Katrina.
Gov. Kay Ivey said Alabama will oppose the plan to restore service without a study of its possible impact on freight traffic.
It’s now up to the STB to consider evidence and determine a resolution that considers both passenger and freight rail along the Gulf Coast.
Funding is secured for the first three years of train service from New Orleans to Mobile, and the Southern Rail Commission has secured $66 million in federal grants and local matching funds for improvements to railroad infrastructure to benefit passenger and freight service along the route.
This story was originally published June 7, 2021 at 5:50 AM.
