MOBILE, Ala. — Members of the Mobile City Council remained focused on its potential funding obligation to support Amtrak Gulf Coast service at a Monday meeting with Amtrak representatives, WKRG-TV reports.
Representatives of the passenger operator, as well as CSX, the Southern Rail Commission, and the Federal Railroad Administration were on hand for a meeting of the council’s Economic, Cultural and Civic Development Committee — the first time Amtrak has been before the council in more than for years, AL.com reports. The meeting saw committee members express concern over a city commitment to provide over $3 million in operating funding for the Mobile-New Orleans trains over the first three years of operation, and the potential ongoing commitment after that period. The states of Louisiana and Mississippi have pledged to back the train under Amtrak’s state-supported operating provisions, but Alabama has left Mobile responsible for its own funding.
WALA-TV reports that Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson has raised the possibility of again approaching the state for some funding, noting the $72 million in infrastructure upgrades in the state that will result from the service. That will benefit the state, and the Port of Mobile, even if the passenger train does not last, he said.
“You’ve got this huge economic development opportunity that’s gonna happen from the port. … That’s a game changer,” Stimpson said, according to WALA. “And so, we now recognize that possibility.”
Mobile’s council agreed to support the service by a 6-1 vote in February 2020, but just three of the council members at that time remain, including the only person who voted against the deal, Councilman Joel Davis. At least two other members have expressed concerns over city funding, AL.com reports; five votes will be required to once again approve support. A new agreement is required given the amount of time it has taken to get the service into operation.
No vote was expected at the meeting, either on an agreement or on approval of the lease of city-owned land for the Mobile station site, and none was taken. Mobile’s zoning board approved an exemption for the temporary station platform and parking-lot improvements earlier this month [see “Mobile, Ala., board approves zoning exception …,” Trains News Wire, May 6, 2024].
Ray Lang, Amtrak vice president, state supported services, told WKRG that the meeting provided “a very robust discussion and probably went on longer than anybody anticipated. It’s my understanding that we’re very close [to finalizing a lease]. I anticipated some more discussion about that today, but the council took a different direction.”
The slow-moving negotiations in Mobile are preventing any action on infrastructure improvements for the Mobile-New Orleans route. While a $178 million CRISI (Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements) grant has been awarded for those improvements, that money does not become available until all agreements for the service are completed, including the agreement with Mobile. “Until the contract is executed for service,” Lang said, “there’s no investment.”
Amtrak, host railroads CSX and Norfolk Southern, and the Port of Mobile reached an agreement to allow the start of Gulf Coast service in November 2022, averting a possible Surface Transportation Board ruling imposing terms [see “Amtrak, freight railroads say they have a deal …,” News Wire, Nov. 22, 2022]. Details remain confidential, but the lack of progress in starting service — which Amtrak once said would begin in 2023 — led the STB to hold a hearing on the matter in February.
Lease discussions with Mobile began in March 2022; a status report to the STB in March of this year said Amtrak was hopeful of a vote on both the lease and funding agreement “in April or May 2024” [see “Gulf Coast impasse at Mobile remains unresolved …,” News Wire, March 18, 2024]. That now appears likely to join a long list of missed targets since Amtrak unilaterally announced in 2021 that it intended to start the service the following year [see “Amtrak seeks to start New Orleans-Mobile service in 2022,” News Wire, Feb. 26, 2021].
Two responses: the reason for serving Mobile, Al is population, though it’s not a huge population center it is certainly larger than any of the other proposed stops along the route besides New Orleans.
Second, in the next Amtrak authorization bill insert language that forces the different state/local government entities to make a decision… give them a timeline, with the incentive being a reduction in Federal funding the longer they take to make a decision(simple solution).
Wonderful reply Chris Thompson.
Austin has the Texas Eagle!!
Both Wisconsin and Illinois have supported the Hiawatha. Minnesota and Wisconsin put cash on the table for the Borealis.
It’s long past time for Amtrak (and by extension, rail advocates posting on these pages) to walk away from the Gulf Coast. All these years of negotation has been quite enough. Give it up. Don’t even establish a new deadline. Just say game already over, we’re taking our marbles and going home, NOW.
Why would I care that Mobile has no train? Frankly I don’t. Nashville, Columbus, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Austin, Des Moines, etc. etc. etc. don’t have trains either. Cleveland, Atlanta, Omaha, Denver, have one train each. Tuscon and San Antonio, look what they have. The Gulf Coast can pack it in. Someone should have told them that long ago.
Alabama governor Kay Ivey set the tone and attitude towards Amtrak service in Mobile early on when the possibility of train service was first announced. She stated that no state money would be spent on passenger trains as they are a “outdated” form of transportation. Her political lackeys here in Mobile followed her lead lockstep in fighting Amtrak.
And now Mayor Stimpson, seeing the federal dollars that would be spent to upgrade the line and enhance freight operations has decided to go meet with the Ivey. He’s going to make the argument that Amtrak won’t last and the federal dollars for track upgrades will have been spent. And all for the price of only three million local dollars. But first he must ask Ivey if thats ok with her. Stimpson by the way, didn’t even bother to join every other city mayor along the Gulf Coast to ride the first Amtrak inspection train.
Charles with all due respect I personally don’t care what you think about train service here on the Gulf Coast or anywhere else for that matter. I do care about passenger train service in all parts of this country no matter how they are funded or if I will personally ride them.
The vast majority of people in this country have never traveled by train. And not because it’s an outdated mode of transportation as our governor has stated. It’s because train service here in the U.S. doesn’t exist for most people. Amtrak right now is a joke. And it will be until and unless it is appropriately funded and managed so that it can grow and become a viable alternative to driving or flying. So if federal, state or local dollars are spent on a new train here are elsewhere in my opinion thats a good thing. At least a few more people will be exposed to train travel and hopefully support it in the future.
I would think Charles that as a reader of Trains magazine you would support expanding passenger train travel here in this country. It seems that you are usually concerned with your tax dollars being spent elsewhere on a service you wouldn’t use. I submit that we may never personally ride on every train that our combined tax dollars support. But likewise we may never ride on every mile of highway or fly in to every airport that those same tax dollars helped build.
That being said I do agree with at least part of your comment. If Mobile doesn’t want Amtrak service then Amtrak shouldn’t push the issue. I’m familiar with this area and know that there is a wye track a couple miles north of the Pascagoula, MS depot. That track could be used to turn the train for a return trip to New Orleans. Pascagoula is a little over thirty miles from Mobile by way of I-10. Pascagoula is ready for Amtrak and has been enthusiastic about the service. I’d gladly travel to Pascagoula to ride the train to New Orleans. I can’t for the life of me understand why Amtrak has held up Gulf Coast passenger train service because of its insistence of serving a state and city where the government is anti passenger train.