On December 4th, 2015, the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act became law, authorizing $305 billion over the next five years to the U.S Department of Transportation’s rail, highway, public transportation, safety, research and technology projects and programs. Among the FAST Act’s policy provisions, the Federal Rail Administration (FRA) was provided $500,000 to convene a working group and conduct a study on restoring passenger rail service from New Orleans, Louisiana to Orlando, Florida. Formerly called the Sunset Limited, “Amtrak operated along this corridor prior to suspending service in August 2005 due to Hurricane Katrina, which caused extensive damage to the rail infrastructure over which the service operated.”