It’s been previewed and promised for years and now, finally, Amtrak passenger trains are ready to roll across the Mississippi Gulf Coast, from New Orleans to Mobile.
“This is it,” Knox Ross, chairman of the Southern Rail Commission said, as the Mobile City Council voted 6-0 Tuesday morning, with one council member absent, to fund the passenger train service for three years. The funding already was approved in Mississippi and Louisiana.
Amtrak’s projected start for train service is spring 2025.
“I think everybody wants to get this running by the Super Bowl,” Ross said, “but they can’t guarantee it.”
The Super Bowl will be played Feb. 9 at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans. Train service from Mobile and South Mississippi would provide another way in and out of the city without clogging I-10 and adding to the parking challenge.
Super Bowl Sunday is six months away and there’s still work to be done before the trains can roll, Ross said.
The platforms are ready in New Orleans and the four stops in Mississippi — Bay St. Louis, Gulfport, Biloxi and Pascagoula — but one still has to be built in Mobile. That will require securing permits, moving utilities and time, he said.
Next steps
The next step probably will be some kind of groundbreaking celebration in Mobile, Ross said, and media events across the Coast to introduce the service.
The name of the line will be announced and the tourism agencies that represent the three states are ready to get the word out, he said.
Here’s what also will happen leading up to the start of service:
- The schedule will be posted on the Amtrak.com website about 90 days before service begins, Ross said. If service will start in time for the Super Bowl, that means bookings will begin around Nov. 9.
- Fares will be announced at the same time as the schedule. Ross said the cost will be reasonable and less than parking in New Orleans. Tickets will be available on the Amtrak website and app.
- An inaugural train will run the day before regular service begins
- The plan calls for two trains a day from New Orleans east to Mobile and two a day heading west from Mobile to New Orleans. The stops in the four Coast cities will be brief — just a few minutes in each city to let passengers to get on and off, he said.
Coast excited for Amtrak return
Eight years ago in 2016, an Amtrak inspection train rolled across South Mississippi for the first time since Hurricane Katrina, and was met by crowds and brass bands in the Coast cities.
That excitement is still there, said Savannah Northrop, executive director of Pascagoula Main Street.
She receives three or four emails a week requesting info on Amtrak, some of it from international travelers, and said she expects the train to bring a broad group of visitors to the city’s downtown.
“We do see them (Amtrak) doing test runs in Pascagoula a lot,” she said, and that has given people hope the trains are coming.
Pascagoula is seeing a boom of restaurants and a new hotel in downtown, and she said business owners are ready to welcome the trains.
A new platform was built in front of the old train depot that recently was purchased by a developer, and she said work is beginning to restore the depot into a restaurant and brewery.
“It’s right in the heart of our downtown,” she said, an area the city is working to expand and brand “The Flagship District.”
“It makes so much sense for the Mississippi Gulf Coast,” Ross said of the train service.
“The cities have set themselves up so well post Katrina,” he said, and they are set up for the arrival of the trains.
In Bay St. Louis, passengers can get off the trains and wander the depot district or ride a golf cart to the beach.
“How wonderful is that?” he said.
Gulfport’s platform is just a few blocks from the Mississippi Aquarium, restaurants and casino. Biloxi’s new passenger rail platform connects to the Coast Transit station, where people can ride a trolley to the casinos.
Use it or lose it
Southern Rail Commission and elected officials worked with the federal government, three states and six cities to get Amtrak trains funded for three years.
To keep it rolling, “We’ve got to ride it, use it, advocate it,” Ross said.
This service opens so much more than travel across the Gulf Coast. People will be able to live near the beach in the safe Bay St. Louis and commute into New Orleans, he said. They will be able to avoid the traffic jams as I-10 is widened, take the train to New Orleans or Mobile to catch a cruise ship, or catch a connecting train from New Orleans to Chicago, Houston or beyond.
Restoring Amtrak across the Gulf Coast took years and leaders in Washington and locally who were committed to the goal, Ross said.
Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker was the one who secured financing and kept pushing. “He’s been a champion,” Ross said. “He’s the guy who didn’t give up on it.”