Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg on Tuesday celebrated securing funding for a project that’s of particular interest to residents of New Orleans and their Southern neighbors.
“The Gulf Coast Corridor Improvement Project will restore passenger train service between Mobile and New Orleans for the first time since Hurricane Katrina devastated the region in 2005,” Buttigieg wrote in an Instagram post that featured several photos from his Oct. 22 visit to Mobile.
Tuesday was a day to celebrate in Mobile, Alabama, as officials broke ground to begin the long-awaited restoration of the railway route between Mobile and New Orleans. The shovels hitting the mound of dirt marked a new beginning and hopefully a resurgence for the cities on this route: Mobile, Pascagoula, Biloxi, Gulf Port, and New Orleans.
The Gulf Coast Corridor Improvement Project will bring back Amtrak’s passenger train travel between these two Southern port cities for the first time since 2005 when the rails on this route were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.
Y'all Aboard! Hundreds of Mobilians came together to welcome U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg to our community and celebrate the return of passenger rail service to the Gulf Coast. The additional layover track and passenger platform built during the Gulf Coast Corridor Improvement project will allow Amtrak to resume passenger services from New Orleans to Mobile.
Secretary Pete Buttigieg joined Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson, Federal Railroad Administrator Amit Bose and representatives from Amtrak, the Southern Rail Commission, and other local leaders for a groundbreaking ceremony for the Gulf Coast Corridor Improvement project, which will restore passenger rail service to the Gulf Coast.
Once the layover track and platform are completed, Amtrak will resume passenger service between Mobile and New Orleans for the first time since Hurricane Katrina devastated the region in 2005. The Biden-Harris Administration awarded the project $178 million through the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Click here for the full transcript of Secretary Buttigieg’s remarks
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg acknowledged the resiliency of a still-evolving Amtrak project along the Gulf Coast Tuesday, while touting the Biden Administration’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure package that added millions of dollars in transportation-related funding to Mobile in recent months.
Tuesday, another big step was taken towards bringing back passenger rail service to the Gulf Coast.
A groundbreaking ceremony was held in Mobile for the layover track, where a train is stored when not in use, which was one of the remaining hurdles in restoring the route.
As part of a deal with Amtrak agreed upon in August, the city of Mobile will pay $3.084 million to subsidize the rail service for three years.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg will be in Mobile Tuesday to participate in the groundbreaking of construction projects needed before Amtrak service can return to the Gulf Coast for the first time in 19 years.
Buttigieg will join Federal Railroad Administrator Amit Bose, U.S. Rep. Jerry Carl of Mobile, Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson and representatives from Amtrak, CSX and the Southern Rail Commission for the ceremony that commences the construction of a layover track and platform to accommodate Amtrak’s return into downtown Mobile.
Earlier this month, Gov. Jeff Landry told The Advocate that he was not opposed to establishing passenger rail service between Baton Rouge and New Orleans but that he would “much rather fix our roads.”
More specifically, Landry said he would rather see both sides of Interstate 10 widened to three lanes along the proposed passenger rail route.
So given those comments from the governor, what does the future of the passenger rail project look like?
Nearly 400 miles north of Fort Worth, Rod Kreie, the mayor of Newton, Kansas, happily envisions a day when he and his friends can hop aboard a southbound Amtrak to go watch his revered Kansas City Chiefs “beat up” on the Dallas Cowboys in Arlington’s AT&T Stadium.
For now, the nearest north-south train from Fort Worth, Amtrak’s Heartland Flyer, ends its journey in Oklahoma City — nearly 200 miles south of Kreie’s town of about 18,000 people. But an unprecedented Biden administration plan designed to pump new life into the nation’s passenger rail system would extend the Flyer all the way to Newton while dramatically escalating Fort Worth’s stature as a major hub for national rail travel.
Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry has come out and said while he does not oppose passenger rail service connecting Baton Rouge and New Orleans, he’d rather see money go towards widening I-10 between the two cities.
John Spain, a member of the Southern Rail Commission, says, why not both?