MOBILE, Ala. — After months of waiting for completion by city of Mobile attorneys, an agreement has been sent to Amtrak for a land lease that would provide a stop for two daily passenger round-trips to New Orleans.
The delay in finalizing the agreement, sent to Amtrak last week, is one factor that has pushed the start of the Gulf Coast service into 2024 [see “Gulf Coast service awaits Mobile station track …,” Trains News Wire, Sept. 9, 2023].
The news site AL.com reports the lease still must be approved by the Mobile City Council at a meeting tentatively set for Nov. 14. Construction of a layover track — needed so trains do not occupy the CSX Transportation main line —and a platform can’t begin until lease details are accepted by Amtrak and CSX.
The downtown land, along with CSX property once owned by predecessor Louisville & Nashville, has been part of a parking lot adjacent to a main-line platform at the site of the former Mobile station. The station building, destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, had served Amtrak’s triweekly Los Angeles-Florida Sunset Limited.
Previous service under Amtrak included the Mobile-Birmingham, Ala., Gulf Breeze connection to the Crescent operating between 1989 and 1995, and two different iterations of a daily Mobile-New Orleans Gulf Coast Limited round trip that ran for several years in the 1980s and 1990s until support was alternately withdrawn by Louisiana, Mississippi, or Alabama. The Southern Rail Commission has since formed a strong multi-state alliance with long-term commitments from politicians, states, and Amtrak.
Americans With Disabilities Act-compliant work by Amtrak is readying intermediate Mississippi station platforms for service at Pascagoula, Biloxi, Gulfport, and Bay St. Louis.
Meanwhile, SRC Chairman Knox Ross tells Trains News Wire that discussions are underway between Amtrak and CSX on executing agreements for more than $223 million in mutually agreed-upon capacity improvements for the Mobile-New Orleans corridor. A Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety (CRISI) grant approved by the Federal Railroad Administration will supply 80% of the funds [see “$178 million in CRISI grant awarded …,” News Wire, Sept. 21, 2023]. The remainder will come from a match by Louisiana, Mississippi, CSX, Norfolk Southern, the Port of Mobile, and Amtrak.
“Now that funds have been obligated, plans and specific construction projects can move forward,” says Ross. “International travel consultants have told us that with twice-daily rail service, they expect Mobile to be a natural magnet to tap an estimated 750,000 pre-pandemic New Orleans annual visitors. With the station centrally located near a vibrant downtown and cruise port, this will be a great boost for the city of Mobile to reach its full potential.”
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