BILOXI, Miss.—The prospect of two daily Amtrak round trips between New Orleans and Mobile, Ala., took a big step forward on Thursday with the announcement of a federal grant to fund operating expenses for the first year of service.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao announced the $4.36 million Federal Railroad Administration Restoration and Enhancement grant, to cover the first-year expenses on the CSX Transportation route formerly served by the Sunset Limited, at the Coastal Region Transportation Summit in Biloxi, Miss.
“This funding will help Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama resume passenger rail service between New Orleans and Mobile to enhance regional economic growth and rural mobility,” Chao said in a statement.
The total funding authorized under a 2017 Fixing America’s Surface Transportation provision championed by U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) was almost $4.8 million, so the sponsoring Southern Rail Commission’s decade-long perseverance in making its case for the new corridor paid off.
Mississippi and Louisiana together are providing the necessary local match by pledging approximately $1.4 million for operations. Those capital commitments, especially from Mississippi, helped win a $33 million Consolidated Rail and Infrastructure Improvement grant earlier this year [see “Gulf Coast corridor wins federal grant to restore passenger service,” Trains News Wire, June 9, 2019].
The capital and operating grants put additional focus on the state of Alabama, which is still evaluating whether it will provide matches to the project despite the obvious economic benefit to the city of Mobile. Wiley Blankenship, the Southern Rail Commission commissioner from Alabama, hints at the importance of his state’s participation in a statement also released today.
“I look forward to working with my fellow commissioners and Alabama state leadership to provide the necessary support to leverage additional federal operating funds to make Gulf Coast Rail a reality,” Blankenship says.
The federal grants mean that many officials and powerful politicians like Wicker will have more than a passing interest in seeing CSX and Amtrak hammer out a reasonable capital and operating agreement — one that is not out of line with cost estimates developed by the FRA.
FRA Administrator Ron Batory noted the ongoing local efforts to restore service, saying, “States are in the best position to determine how to meet the mobility needs of their citizens, and I commend the Southern Rail Commission for all its hard work to restore Gulf Coast intercity passenger rail service.”
Joe McHugh, Amtrak vice president for state-supported services, says, “Momentum is building, and Amtrak is working with the [Southern Rail Commission], elected officials in the three states, and other stakeholders to get the service from the drawing boards to the tracks.”
These states are very foolish to accept this federal money. Once the one year is up then it will be the states responsibility to pay for the service. I admire Gov. Ivey in standing up for the taxpayers of Alabama. I wish the governor of Maine would do the same for her constituants.
And Mr. Nichols, you can still get from Miami to Chicago, DC, NYC or Boston without Amtrak service up the coast. You simply go to Miami Airport, get on a plane and fly. You’ll be in any of those cities in hours as opposed to days by taking Amtrak. And you’ll have better service too.
Walker’s support of the freight railroads in Wisconsin – particularly the Wisconsin Southern owned by one of his supporters – was helpful; his successful opposition to the Madison extension deprived Wisconsin and the Midwest of an opportunity to move passenger service to a new level – that service with the plenitude of students at the university would have been a success and a long-term asset for the region.
D NICHOLS No, a person could not get from Florida to Boston etc. via New Orleans and Chicago because he or she would die of old age in the process. Especially in that one of the trains was tri weekly. Also getting a reservation on one or all the trains would have been difficult.
As for hurricane evacuation via Amtrak, Amtrak simply doesn’t have the capacity. Amtrak capacity is measured in the hundreds at best. In any event, typically Amtrak is the first mode of travel to annul.
The big problem with the Feds and Amtrak is that when there is a Hurricane that affects the GA to VA area it cuts off passenger service to anywhere in Florida. When the Sunset Limited was running, even if the East Coast North of Jax was affected, you still could get from Miami to Chicago/DC/NY/Boston/etc… Now you can’t. Flooding from Hurricane Matthew showed how bad travel in the I-95 corridor can get with weeks of either very slow or no travel at all along those areas. Even the Silver Star route was cut but yet the Crescent was still running.
The government paid CSX, I don’t know how many millions, which included a through track around the N.O. yard. Unfortunately CSX used the track to assemble long freights, forcing the Sunset to creep through the yard tracks!
Thank you Southern Rail Commission. When these trains start rolling, people will utilize them, regardless of the the airplanes, buses, and private autos on Interstate 10. Relax, enjoy the scenery, experience a part of the country that there is no other way to see.
Did the portion of the old Seaboard line in the FL Panhandle go that close to the main tourist towns located on the FL Gulf Coast? I was under the impression that it missed them.
Unfortunately, the new proposal for NO to Mobile service can only be done by Amtrak since its Interstate. I still believe that the best thing the Feds could do would be to eliminate Amtrak’s right to be the sole interstate provider and we could then see if that leads to new developments in rail passenger service. However, the Amtrak unions would fight that with all their might so it wouldn’t be easy to do.
Unfortunately It’ll never happen as long as we’ve got Kay Ivey as governor. Heck I’ll bet she doesn’t even know what a passenger train is. And the anti passenger rail group here in Mobile have her in their pocket. But unlike Mr. Shivlk I definitely believe that if the N.O. to Mobile train were put back on and advertised aggressively that it would work. A lot has changed in Mobile and along the Gulf Coast in the past 20 or thirty years.
Service to Mobile from N.O. was tried in the ‘80s and from Birmingham in the ‘90s in the form of a “Gulf Coast Limited”. Both times ridership did not match projections and service was discontinued after state support was withdrawn. Both times lack of sufficient advertising was blamed saying people didn’t know the route was available.
Hogwash! The Redneck Riviera in truth stretches from the Armpit of Florida’s Panhandle below Tallahassee all the way to New Orleans. The portion from Pensacola to FLA’s Capitol City FAR outperforms Mobile to N.O. as a “destination” worthy of visiting.
But even beyond all that, the rest of Florida is where people really want to go! This is why the Sunset Limited continued to run without (cmiiw) direct state subsidy until the disaster we all will never forget called Katrina. The Sunset at its very basic aspect simply provided a rail connection to Florida for the rest of the country! It also provided a necessary economic shot in the arm for municipalities all along the Gulf Coast. Just ask the Chambers of Commerce and Mayors of Gulfport, Biloxi, Mobile, Pensacola, Panama City and Tallahassee what the loss of that train meant to them.
Do that and you’ll see why Mobile and One Year of funding just is not enough!!!
CHRIS – Why do you bet Gov. Kay Ivey doesn’t know what a passenger train is? Do you know her? Have you spoken to her? Have you read or heard any of her comments on the subject, or any press releases from her office?
The issue is, does Gov. Ivey believe this is a wise use of state funds. It has nothing to do with whether or not she knows anything about trains, or likes or dislikes trains. She was voted in to run the state government and that’s what she will do until her term ends. For better or for worse, like it or not.
Why do you say the anti-rail group has her in their pocket? Are you aware of any bribes paid or campaign contributions made? Has it occurred to you she simply agrees with them? Or perhaps she never heard of this lobby but simply they are on the same page she happens to be on.
Why do I write all this? Because I live in Wisconsin. I voted for Scott Walker (several times for three different offices). Iheard all the hateful nonsense flung in his direction because he opposed spending state money on the proposed Madison train while fully and generously supporting the Hiawatha corridor.
In terms of incremental annual RPMs, and incremental passenger ticket revenue, per dollar invested, this is about the worst possible investment of public capital you could find. Does FRA not consider return on invested capital?
And why is the operation being handed over to the high-cost monopoly provider, rather than being put out to competitive bid? Does Alabama or Mississippi do that with all their public transportation projects?