Amtrak is asking the Surface Transportation Board (STB) to expedite a decision on its request to operate trains between New Orleans and Mobile starting in 2022. The formal request is designed to restore passenger rail service along a route that was suspended in 2005 following Hurricane Katrina and after more than five years “of data-driven and federally led studies.”

STB could require Class 1 freight railroads CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Railway to permit twice daily roundtrip trains unless the freight railroads can prove why passenger trains cannot be hosted successfully.