Train travel through the South is about to get a fresh impetus next year, as a route along the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana is on track to be restored after a nearly 20-year hiatus.
Amtrak recently received approval to restart its train service from Mobile, Alabama, to New Orleans, a stretch of track which was last operated by the passenger train company in 2005. When Hurricane Katrina decimated the Gulf region in August of that year, the coastal rail route—which was part of Amtrak’s larger Sunset Limited line—went on indefinite hiatus. In the decades since, lawmakers and rail officials have gone back and forth about whether or not the route should be resumed.
However, earlier this month, the passenger service was cleared to make its triumphant return. On August 6, the Mobile City Council approved a funding plan by which the city’s port authority and city council agreed to allocate $3 million to relaunch the rail route—the final piece of the budget needed to officially greenlight the project. The $3 million boost comes on top of a federal grant of $178.4 million from the Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements Program, as well as contributions from the states of Louisiana and Mississippi.
“With the funding in place, this train can roll soon, and it will have a great return on investment and a tremendous impact in connecting people with jobs and education opportunities, boosting our local economies, and supporting our growing tourism industry in our coastal cities,” Knox Ross, the chair of the Southern Rail Commission, said in a release.
Once launched, passengers can expect a picturesque route with views of the Gulf and estuaries like Lake Pontchartrain, as well as access to charming coastal towns along the way. The service plans to operate twice daily and stop in four cities in Mississippi—Pascagoula, Biloxi, Gulfport, and Bay St. Louis—on its way between Mobile and New Orleans. There’s no firm timeline yet as to when the train will get up and running again, but officials are hoping to restart the line by February 2025, in time for Super Bowl LIX taking place on February 9 in New Orleans, as well as the city’s famous Mardi Gras celebrations.
