BATON ROUGE, La. — The cities of Baton Rouge and Gonzales will receive $20 million in federal funding for stations for the proposed Baton Rouge-New Orleans passenger service, members of the Louisiana congressional delegation have announced.
The funds, sought jointly by the two cities, will go toward land acquisition, design, and construction of the stations. The Greater Baton Rouge Business Report says the cities has sought $36.95 million for the two structures, which have an estimated total cost of $46.6 million.
The funds are part of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s RAISE (Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity) grant program. $13 million will to go toward construction of the initial phase of the project in Baton Rouge, an ADA-compliant platform and canopy, with the city and parish providing $3.25 million in matching funds.
“This grant award is the result of unprecedented regional collaboration between two cities critical to the success of the project,” Baton Rouge Mayor Sharon Weston Broome said in a press release.
The city has a plan in place for two stations, one downtown and one in the suburban Health District, that was completed in 2019 in partnership with the Southern Rail Commission and administered by redevelopment agency Build Baton Rouge.
Canadian Pacific has pledged to allow one daily round trip of New Orleans-Baton Rouge service if its merger with Kansas City Southern — current owner of the route — is approved [see “Canadian Pacific commits …” Trains News Wire, Dec. 8, 2021]. The railroad has cautioned, however, that infrastructure improvements may be needed to improve trip times, and that capacity work will be needed for additional frequencies. A 2014 report estimated about $262 million in infrastructure work was needed to improve the route for passenger service.
At least Canadian Pacific is willing to be somewhat cooperative in getting the service started. I hope that other railroads will gradually adopt that attitude, but I’m not expecting much anytime soon.
Mr. Landey raises a good point. The drawing looks like an awful lot of station space for even a city the size of Baton Rouge.. Perhaps more information needs to be given as to the use of all that space. Is the station part of a larger project?? Is a private developer involved??
Charles Landey
Got to start somewhere, start with 1 and build from there, with a reasonable timeline.
Mr. Clark you are absolutely wrong, Charles is absolutely correct. Automobility and its attendant road/highway building, I shouldn’t have to tell you, have grown hand in hand exponentially since the mid-1950s. We know what’s happened to intercity passenger trains in the same period. If we want to implement a new-start service (in many cases it would be service restoration) that has any chance of inducing robust ridership there are ONLY two choices: We either go big, meaning multi-frequency…or we shut up and go home.
A lot of money will be required to make New Orleans-Baton Rouge passenger service a success. The current freight tracks will have to be rebuilt to allow for passenger train speeds. I wish the proponents luck in getting any funding from the Republican controlled Louisiana legislature.
For one train a day? What would be the point?
Tell me a successful short-haul train that runs 1x daily.
Nice to see that Baton Rouge is planning for the possibility of a train. And meanwhile we here in Mobile, Alabama have no station and no plans or prospects to build one. Our Gub-na MEE-MAW don’t won’t none of that evil Federal grant money.
Perhaps, Chris, because acceptance of that “evil Federal grant money” obligates the State of Alabama to ongoing expenses. Same thing as Gov. Scott Walker of my state refused federal money for the loser train to Madison. Which never was resurrected after Walker lost re-election four years ago.
Charles you give MEE-MAW to much credit in the area of reasoning. Gub- na MEE-MAW and her cronies are part of the backwards thinking that has kept Alabama near or at the bottom of every standard of living chart except poverty where we are near the top.
The governor is just doing what the voters want. The worse drivers and fastest here in GA I-85 are Alabama drivers for example. There are not many high paying jobs. The KIA plant ay West Point ga / Lanette AL is one bright spot for AL workers..
Unfortunately most voters here in Bama vote the party line in spite of their own best interests. And I’ve unfortunately driven in Atlanta to many times. Drivers from Georgia can dive fast and dangerously also.
Charles, I heartily disagree with your characterization of the Madison service (actually extending the CHI-MKE trains) as a “loser”. If done right, that service, operated with reasonable frequencies, linking CHI with your state’s capital, would have been a great success. But Scott Walker only wanted to build more roads. He and his sidekick Cong. Scott Fitzgerald (R-WI-5) were all-around mean-spirited and ruthless as shown in “The Fall of Wisconsin: The Conservative conquest of a progressive bastion and the future of American politics” by Dan Kaufman, W.W. Norton 2018.
Oh Mark Mark Mark Mark. You agree with me on one point and heartily disagree with me on the other. Guess it means you read my posts. Hey, we Bay Staters stick together! (Half way.) As for the Madison train, may I remind you I have lived in the belly of the beast, either Wauwatosa or Brookfield, for 25 years, and before that lived not too far away in West Allis. I know the CP Rail tracks like I know my way around our own bedroom. I also saw, at the time, the half-baked WisDOT plans for the infrastructure. It’s a loser. The fact that Walker has been out of office for 3-plus years and his Democrat successor (and Madison native) Tony Evers hasn’t resurrected the proposal, must tell you something.
Mark, I live in the 5th Wisconsin CD, have voted for first Cong. Jim Sensenbrenner and now Scott Fitzgerald. I voted for Scott Walker for 14th District Wisconsin State Assembly (Wauwatosa), for Milwaukee County Executive, three times for governor plus one time in the governor recall. I know the plusses and minuses of both his character and his policies. He has his blind spot about public transportation for sure, and I once told him so to his face. Weighing his good and bad points, he’s the best thing that ever happened to Milwaukee County government or Wisconsin state government, by far.
Charles, I shouldn’t have pulled your chain like that. It’s just I thought then and still do that a credible multi-frequency 3-4 daily trains in each direction linking those three cities could be a winner. Admittedly, I was never familiar with what was planned for the routes west of MKE. I just figured WisDOT and CP were working together to build something solid. And yes I always read your posts and yes I know you reside “in the belly of the beast” and are far more in touch with the rail lines in that area than I am.
That’s quite a station for one daily round trip.
Oh, and while I’m at my keyboard, I will repeat (as I have many times before) the words Paul Reistrup so wisely said: Three daily round trips or you’re wasting your time.