NEW ORLEANS — Amtrak is restoring service on all routes in and out of New Orleans following Hurricane Barry.
Service will resume today for the eastbound Crescent; the Monday departures of its westbound counterpart from New York will be the first inbound train to serve New Orleans.
Similarly, northbound service resumes today for the City of New Orleans, while southbound service resumed Monday from Chicago. Those trains are operating to and from Jackson, Miss., with Amtrak providing chartered-bus service between Jackson and New Orleans. Host railroad Canadian National has closed the tracks south of Jackson to the train intermittently since March, citing issues with the Bonne Carre Spillway trestle.
Full service on the triweekly Sunset Limited resumes with Wednesday’s departure from Los Angeles and the July 20 departure from New Orleans.
CN freights and “the City,” continue to cross the Bonne Carre. But the City has no passengers, just the crew.
The Bonne Carre bridge is a mile long timber trestle, miles from any ware. Can you imagine a derailment into 10 feet of flowing Mississippi river water, into lake Pontchartrain? No one wants another Sunset Bayou Cannet disaster!
If Canadian National is still denying the City access to New Orleans, only part of Amtrak’s service has been restored.