‘We’re not colonizing Mars’: Why Amtrak service has not started between Mobile and New Orleans

Any idea when Amtrak services between Mobile and New Orleans will start?

It’s a question asked often along the Gulf Coast, and beyond. The answer is complicated, with no definitive start date to provide. And some passenger rail advocates are wondering aloud why the trains are not rolling between New Orleans and Mobile approximately 13 months after the parties involved in a historic case before the U.S. Surface Transportation Board announced they reached some sort of settlement.

“This is a train for crying out loud,” said Todd Liebman, president of All Aboard Arizona who testified in support of the Amtrak Gulf Coast route before the STB closing into two years ago. Liebman would like to see the project completed to connect the state to the Gulf Coast.

“We’re not colonizing Mars,” he said. “Trains have been around for 190 years. We can do this. If there are unreasonable stumbling blocks, they need to be removed, and fast.”

Federal and local officials say the slowdown in the project’s progression wasn’t unexpected. The primary issues appear to be in Mobile, where negotiations are ongoing between Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson’s office and Amtrak over a lease agreement for a train stop at the foot of Government and Water streets.

The two sides met on Thursday, and a city spokeswoman said further work is needed.

“There is a critical piece of property owned by the city on the riverfront,” said Candace Cooksey, spokeswoman for Stimpson. “We need to develop a land use (agreement) and, in addition to that, there needs to be some answers on a (request from the city) on a monetary commitment. We’re waiting for that information. I think there is some indication that Amtrak will be prepared to start working on the funding agreements next month.”

The Federal Rail Administration is not surprised by the slow progress.

“Restoring passenger rail service to the Gulf Coast for the first time in nearly two decades is a priority for the Biden-Harris Administration,” according to a statement from an FRA spokesperson to AL.com. “The project, which includes infrastructure and safety improvements, modernized accessible passenger stations, operating agreements and environmental considerations is currently advancing at a pace consistent with projects involving numerous stakeholders.”

The FRA’s statement credited the bipartisan infrastructure law in 2021 for contributing in a “historic investment in this project, adding “we continue to work with the stakeholders who are party to the Surface Transportation Board agreement to develop a safe, reliable and efficient Gulf Coast Corridor that is supportive of the needs of residents across the region.”

‘Everyone is disappointed’

But the lack of train service is rankling some advocates who have been working on the restoration project since Hurricane Katrina damaged the Gulf Coast line in 2005.

Jim Mathews, president and CEO with Rail Passengers Association – a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit that advocates for passenger rail in regions nationwide – said “everyone is disappointed” over the lack of progress.

The twice-daily connection between New Orleans and Mobile, with four stops in Mississippi – Pascagoula, Biloxi, Gulfport and Bay St. Louis – was supposed to be running before the end of 2023. The revised schedule has Amtrak’s return pushed back to the fall of 2024.

Mathews said the problem is the timing of some projects, including the lease agreement in Mobile. Those projects did not begin until after the official announcement of a Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) grant even though Amtrak and the freight operators along the rail line – CSX and Norfolk Southern – had reached a proposed settlement in their dispute in November 2022.

The fourth party to the settlement was the Alabama State Port Authority, whose officials once vehemently opposed the Amtrak project out of concern that additional passenger trains would disrupt port business in Mobile.

The $178.8 million CRISI money dedicated toward infrastructure improvements along the Gulf Coast line was not announced until late September.

“We knew the CRISI grant was coming,” Mathews said. “The work could proceed in anticipation of the CRISI grant and that is not what happened.”

Cooksey confirmed that Mobile’s work began after the CRISI grant was awarded. The infrastructure projects were included in the grant application, she said. The city sent Amtrak a lease agreement in early November, and talks have been ongoing ever since.

“I would categorize it as us doing our due diligence and working with Amtrak to fine-tune agreements that will go before the city council,” Cooksey said. "

Cooksey said Mobile is dealing with some “very prescribed steps in the design and engineering” of the rail improvements that need to be completed, and not just in Mobile. She said there are environmental regulatory steps that also need to be finalized.

“It’s not as easy as just flipping a switch (and the trains can run again),” Cooksey said. “After our meeting with Amtrak last week, we are all on the same page and it’s clear on what the process will be on the city of Mobile’s end.

An Amtrak spokesman said last week that “our conversations with the city continue, with everyone working toward an agreement.”

Maggie Oliver, spokeswoman with the Alabama State Port Authority, said the parties involved in the STB case remain under a “confidential settlement agreement,” but added that “this is a complicated process with many moving parts, and I am confident everyone involved is working towards the same goal.”

The four parties in the case are required to file a supplemental joint status report to the STB by Feb. 1.

‘Run out the clock’

Mathews suggested there is skepticism about whether the project is intentionally being slowed by those who vocalized opposition before the STB. And that included almost every speaker from Alabama, who expressed concerns that the twice-daily Amtrak service – without infrastructure improvements to the rail line – would harm Mobile’s major economic engine.

Passenger rail advocates, at the time, claimed that Mobile and Alabama officials were being misled about the project by the freight operators.

“It’s almost as if people opposed to the project are trying to run out the clock, and that’s a shame,” said Mathews.

In Mobile, there is no guarantee that a lease agreement will even pass the city council. It’s been almost four years since a previous council voted 6-1 in early 2020, committing $3 million to support the train’s operations over three years.

That agreement, however, is out-of-date and needs to be reconsidered before a completely different council – of the seven members who voted in 2020, only three remain on the council.

One of them is Councilman Joel Daves, who was the sole “No” vote and once called the project a “joyride for the affluent.” Also on the council is Ben Reynolds, elected in 2021, who has also vocalized his general opposition toward Amtrak. Assuming both vote against a revised agreement, all the other council members would have to vote in favor of it. It takes a five-vote supermajority to pass almost any city expenditure.

Daves, late last week, said he has not been approached about the project.

“I am not voting for money, lease, or anything that has to do with passenger rail unless or until the reps with Amtrak and the (Southern Rail Commission) meets with the city council and we go through every piece of it, step-by-step and (learn) what the expectations are from the city and what they expect ridership will be and the capital costs and all of that,” Daves said. “We’ll see what happens then.”

Knox Ross, a longtime-based Mississippi representative on the Southern Rail Commission said he believes that at some point, Mobile and Amtrak are going to have to talk about “why this isn’t happening.” He noted that the proposed settlement before the STB includes improvements along the rail line, and that the CRISI grant makes track improvements “that will make the railroad more fluent than it is now.”

He said if the sticking points in Mobile are not worked out, “it makes it harder to do” the project. Ross said the stalling has “tampered down” some of the enthusiasm for the project, though he acknowledged energy for it still exists.

The project has political support in Louisiana and Mississippi, but not in Alabama. As Cooksey said, the ongoing negotiations between Mobile and Amtrak are unique because they include a municipal government and not a state government. The state of Alabama has not contributed monetary support for the project, and it has not been supported by the current or past governors.

Amtrak officials, in 2021, said support from the state of Alabama was not needed for the Gulf Coast project to operate.

“It’s different from what Amtrak is used to,” Cooksey said. “Their agreements are with the states, and so it’s good for us to get together and hash out details on what this looks like and what questions we will need answers for before going to the council. They’ve been receptive to all of that.”

Matt Wolfe, senior vice-president with Greater New Orleans Inc., said his agency is appreciative of Amtrak’s commitment to the project, “as evidenced in their annual report and long-range plan.”

Wolfe and Mathews, with the Rail Passengers Association, say the Amtrak crews are ready for the service to begin.

“The equipment is there, the crews have been training, everyone is about to be qualified on the territory,” Mathews said. “Everything is basically where it needs to be. And so we’re really hoping this will be the final set of delays.”