MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) – A train rolled through downtown Mobile on Tuesday. It was just for show, but soon there will actually be trains running between Port City and New Orleans.
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigeg led a team of dignitaries turning shovels at the future site of the Amtrak train platform next to the Arthur Outlaw Mobile Convention Center.
“All we have to say is, ‘All of you on board,’” said Knox Ross, chairman of the Southern Rail Commission, who has been pushing for this day for years.
Ross noted that no trains have carried passengers to and from Mobile since Hurricane Katrina disrupted the previous rail line in 2005.
“This brings us full circle,” he said to a group of enthusiastic supporters on a sunny afternoon. “This was pretty much the last thing that didn’t come back from Katrina, and it reconnects our coastal cities and opens our beautiful Gulf Coast to the nation.”
After CSX moves the utilities, construction will begin on the parking lot platform. The project includes a siding where the train will park overnight. Amtrak aims to have the trains in service sometime next year, with two trains per day from Mobile to New Orleans, and two trains per day returning from Crescent City. The train stops in four cities in Mississippi.
Amid all the pomp and circumstance of Thursday, a host of unanswered questions remain, including the exact start date of the service. Amtrak also hasn’t said what the cost will be to ride the train, although by comparison a one-way midweek bus trip between Milwaukee and Chicago — not as long as the distance between Mobile and New Orleans — is between $19 and $31 is. depending on the time of day.
The biggest one of all is how long the service will last.
The Mobile City Council voted in August to approve a ground lease for the train stop and, crucially, a three-year operating grant. It came after years of debate and previous failed votes. But it wasn’t easy. Skeptical council members agreed to spend just over $3 million on the initiative, only after the Alabama Port Authority offered to pay $1 million of those costs and Governor Kay Ivey promised to consider previous opposition to state funding.
Council members noted that city taxpayers are taking on a responsibility that state governments in Mississippi and Louisiana are taking on. They made it clear that they do not plan to renew the funding after the first three years.
Buttigieg alluded to that debate.
“I know this was a challenging conversation that took a lot of twists and turns and discussions, and ultimately a lot of collaboration,” he told reporters after his remarks. “But what it resulted in was the solution that enabled us to deliver the $178 million we are so proud to provide for this project.”
That’s a reference to a Federal Railroad Administration grant that will pay for signal improvements, railroad crossing upgrades and station improvements along the route.
Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson said he believes the state will fund the route if it proves successful.
“Then I think it’s an easy conversation,” he said. “It’s a very easy conversation.”
Amtrak President Roger Mitchell said the company is outperforming its pre-COVID results, with a goal of doubling ridership by 2040.
“We need more Amtrak trains in more places with more frequencies,” he said.
As for the future of Amtrak in Mobile, Stimpson — who has announced he will not run for re-election this year — pointed out that it is not up to him.
“It doesn’t matter what my feelings are or what I think about it,” he said. “It’s up to the next group to decide that and it’s up to Amtrak to act.”
Train enthusiasts like Mobile resident Lisa Graves said they were just glad the train was coming.
“We are very happy,” she said, as she stood in line for a look inside the train on Tuesday. “We like to go to New Orleans for a day, to Bay St. Louis and all these areas, maybe overnight in New Orleans and then come back. We love it. I can’t wait.”
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