News & Reviews News Wire STB to proceed with Amtrak Gulf Coast hearing

STB to proceed with Amtrak Gulf Coast hearing

By Trains Staff | February 7, 2024

Feb. 14 event will consider delays in starting New Orleans-Mobile service

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Man speaking from seat in hearing room
Surface Transportation Board Chairman Martin Oberman addresses a 2022 hearing on Amtrak’s efforts to launch service on the Gulf Coast. The board will hold a hearing on delays in starting that service on Feb. 14, 2024.  (STB screen capture via YouTube)

WASHINGTON — The Surface Transportation Board will proceed with its planned hearing on the status of Amtrak Gulf Coast service on Wednesday, Feb. 14, the board announced in a decision issued Tuesday.

The parties to the agreement allowing service to begin — Amtrak, CSX Transportation, Norfolk Southern, and the Alabama State Port Authority — had asked the board to cancel the hearing in a filing last week, saying they had “no further information to offer” beyond that contained in the Feb. 1 update [see “Amtrak, railroads ask STB to cancel …,” Trains News Wire, Feb. 2, 2024]. The board had asked for detailed information on the status of the settlement, and announced plans for the hearing, in January, indicating concerns over delays in implementing the agreement reached in November 2022 [see “STB seeks answers for delay …,” Trains News Wire, Jan. 19, 2024].

The board has also invited the City of Mobile to participate in the hearing if it chooses. Last week’s filing suggested that negotiations between Amtrak and the city — which is not a party to the settlement — over land needed for a siding at the Mobile station site is one of the issues delaying the start of service, which Amtrak had originally indicated would occur in 2023.

Amtrak said in a statement today that it “appreciates the Board’s continuing interest in establishment of new service between Mobile and New Orleans” and “looks forward to participating in the hearing.”

The hearing will take place at 11 a.m. ET at the hearing room at the board’s headquarters, at 395 E Street, S.W., in Washington. Information for those wishing to attend in person is included in the board’s decision. The hearing will also be carried on the STB YouTube channel, and available through a link at the STB website under “Quick Links” by clicking on “Watch Live Hearings Here.”

2 thoughts on “STB to proceed with Amtrak Gulf Coast hearing

  1. All the parties involved — CSX, Amtrak, the cities, the states, the US Government, all tied up in knots over this issue. For decades.

    I think I went from birth through six years of college in fewer years. Seems as if the airlines went from flying occasional DC-6B’s, to flying frequent Airbus 320’s, in fewer years.

    Call us superannuated, Mrs. L. and I remember when something could get done in America. Not any more. What a joke this country has become.

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