After two decades of attempts to bring passenger train service back to the Gulf Coast between Mobile and New Orleans with stops in Mississippi, officials have reached an agreement.
In 2022, Amtrak and two freight companies reached an initial deal to allow a passenger and freight train route from Mobile to New Orleans with four stops in Bay St. Louis, Pascagoula, Gulfport, and Biloxi. But a group of Mobile councilmen balked over fear of funding concerns in June.
On July 24, however, the Rail Passengers Association released a statement saying that another agreement had been reached after a return to negotiations.
“This process has taken a long – too long, to be frank. But that makes us all the more grateful to Amtrak, the Port of Mobile, and the City of Mobile – particularly Mayor Sandy Stimpson – for returning to the negotiating table, as many times as it took, to get this project across the finish line,” Rail Passengers Association President Jim Matthews said. “Rail Passengers Association applauds the work done by the Mobile City Council and urges the Council to approve this agreement with all due haste.”
The new agreement centers on a three-year funding plan with a land-use agreement between Amtrak, the City of Mobile, and the Port of Mobile. The Port of Mobile and City of Mobile will also contribute some funding to cover part of Alabama’s share of the operations budget in the first three years of service, though the full details have not been released.
The agreement is scheduled for final approval by Mobile’s city council during the first week of August, and a timeline for the twice-daily service beginning on the coast is said to depend on how quickly upgrades can be made to existing tracks.
“Our coalition has been working for almost two decades to bring back passenger trains to the Gulf Coast, and so we are thrilled at today’s announcement, which clears the way for the reintroduction of Amtrak service between New Orleans, Louisiana and Mobile, Alabama,” Matthews said.
