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Objective

To initiate new daily passenger rail service between New Orleans and Mobile with two round trips each day, morning and evening, with stops in Bay St. Louis, Gulfport, Biloxi, and Pascagoula offering business-friendly service.

Project Overview: New Orleans to Mobile

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina destroyed critical rail infrastructure along the Gulf Coast, leading to the suspension of passenger rail service throughout the region. As the region grows, communities along the route are enthusiastically supportive of the re-establishment of passenger rail service, which will support local businesses, tourism, and residents by strengthening the region’s infrastructure and economy.

The Southern Rail Commission is committed to establishing twice daily, round-trip passenger rail service between New Orleans and Mobile with stops in Bay St. Louis, Gulfport, Biloxi, and Pascagoula.

This new passenger rail will serve the coastal south in a more robust way than the old service ever did by linking employees, residents, and tourists to the region’s growing economic centers and the region’s smaller communities, rural areas, and north-south intermodal routes.

The Southern Rail Commission and the federal, state, and local officials in Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana have been successful in securing millions in funding that will be used to make the major infrastructure and capital investments required to allow Amtrak to move ahead with launching new, regular, reliable passenger service between New Orleans and Mobile, with future expansion envisioned to connect onto Orlando. The Gulf Coast Passenger Rail project is supported as a bipartisan effort of Gov. John Bel Edwards (La.), Gov. Tate Reeves (Miss.), Alabama SRC commissioners, Senator Roger Wicker (Miss.), Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (Miss.), Senator Richard Shelby (Ala.), and former congressional leaders who supported the project.

Project Status

  • In 2016, the SRC announced the allocations for more than $2 million in funding through the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) to communities in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana that are underway with planning, upgrading and constructing their rail stations.

  • In May 2019, SRC was awarded a $5.45 million federal grant through the Restoration and Enhancement (R&E) Grants Program that can fund operating expenses for the first and second years of service along the restored rail line.

  • Following that grant, in June 2019, SRC was awarded a $33 million federal grant through the Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) program to complete major infrastructure and capital improvements necessary for service restoration. These federal grants also leverage matching commitments from the States of Louisiana and Mississippi and the City of Mobile.

  • In addition, in August 2019, SRC was awarded a $4.36 million federal grant through the Restoration and Enhancement (R&E) Grants Program from FRA to SRC. This federal grant will fund operating expenses for the first year of service along the new rail line and leverages commitments of approximately $1.4 million from the states of Louisiana and Mississippi and the City of Mobile.

  • The Gulf Coast Passenger Rail project is supported as a bipartisan effort of the Gov. Phil Bryant, governor of Mississippi and Gov. John Bel Edwards, governor of Louisiana and Alabama SRC commissioners, and former Congressional leaders such as Senator Wicker and Senator Cochran, Senator Shelby and Senator Hyde-Smith and local legislative leaders in the states of Mississippi and Louisiana. U.S. Senators Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), and Representative Steven Palazzo (R-Miss.) and U.S. Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama.

  • Congress created the Gulf Coast Working Group (GCWG) in the 2015 federal transportation reauthorization (the FAST Act) to perform an exhaustive study on restoring the service, which was administered by the FRA.

  • The GCWG Report was completed in July 2017 and in it the GCWG identified the preferred option as restoring service between: 1) New Orleans, LA and Orlando, FL via long-distance train for one daily round trip; and 2) New Orleans, LA and Mobile, AL via state-supported train for one daily round trip.

  • In April 2021, Amtrak filed a petition asking the Surface Transportation Board (STB) to deny CSX’s and Norfolk Southern’s motion to dismiss Amtrak’s application to restore passenger rail service to the Gulf Coast between New Orleans and Mobile.

  • In December 2022, the Surface Transportation Board announced a settlement agreement between Amtrak and the freight railroads which will enable the start of passenger service along the Mobile to New Orleans corridor.

  • Amtrak is currently running familiarization trips for the highly anticipated return of passenger rail service between New Orleans and Mobile. The SRC announced they are in current discussions with Amtrak to name the service, with expectations to share the final naming decision in the near future.

  • On Sept. 21, 2023, Senator Wicker announced the award of $178,435,333 to Amtrak from the FRA’s Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements Program to provide crucial funding to restore passenger rail service along the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

  • Amtrak and the City of Mobile are finalizing the details for the station platform and layover track which is the final piece of infrastructure needed before the train can operate.

  • In March 2024, the FRA awarded the Southern Rail Commission $400,000 from the Interstate Rail Compacts (IRC) grant program to support administrative capacity, operations, and initiatives to expand passenger rail operations across the South.

  • On Aug. 6, 2024, the Mobile City Council unanimously voted to approve the funding and land use agreements with Amtrak that allowed the construction of the train platform and planning for the launch of service to finally move forward.

Economic Impact

Passenger rail service would:

  • Generate $282.58 million annually in the State of Mississippi, and will create 45 new full-time, permanent, high-wage train operating jobs in Louisiana, according to the study conducted by the Trent Lott National Center for Excellence in Economic Development and Entrepreneurship at the University of Southern Mississippi. The impacts on tourism could be even more dramatic, as the study found that just a modest five percent increase in visitors in Harrison County (MS) could generate $92 million more in spending and income annually.

  • Jacksonville State University’s study found that expanding passenger rail service within the state of Alabama would add thousands of construction and railway operations jobs and increase tourism spending throughout the state. Total economic output on Alabama’s economy is as follows: Construction and Restoration of $1.3 billion (10,800 jobs generated); Railway Operations from $6.3 million to $21.6 million (18 – 61 jobs generated), which is based on low and high end estimates; and Increased Tourism Spending from $22.8 million on low end to $389.2 million (227 – 3,867 jobs generated) on high end.

  • Boost the Gulf Coast economy by connecting the growing population centers and tourist destinations, and support diverse jobs, health care, higher education, beaches, casinos and multiple military bases

  • Provide a critical evacuation route for Gulf Coast cities

  • Serve the workforce of growing industries such as oil and gas, petrochemical, aerospace, shipping and the military

  • Attract additional sales tax revenue from casino patrons, visitors and tourists

  • Serve communities with very high poverty rates with limited access to transportation alternatives