Construction of a key Amtrak station in downtown Mobile, Alabama will begin after the project received its final stamp of approval from city councilmembers on Monday, marking a major step forward for the return of passenger rail along the Gulf Coast.
Mobile councilmembers approved a three-year, $3 million funding agreement to construct and operate a new Amtrak platform downtown. The deal includes funding from the city and the Alabama Port Authority and sets the stage for utility relocation work to immediately begin.
Other cities along the route, including New Orleans, have already agreed to host the line, which has been offline since Hurricane Katrina. Mobile’s decision is the final piece in a puzzle for the route’s revamp, said Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson.
“We believe it's a win-win, win-win situation,” Stimpson said. “We look forward to the day that Mobilians can go to New Orleans on the train and that New Orleans can come to Mobile.”
Once it’s up and running, Amtrak will operate twice-daily service between the two cities. It will include stops in Biloxi, Gulfport, Pascagoula and Bay St. Louis.
Amtrak hopes to have the route online in time for the Super Bowl in February 2025, but that’s dependent on city permitting and construction schedules, said Knox Ross, chairman of the Southern Rail Commission.
“There are still unknowns as far as the construction part of it goes,” Ross said. “But this opens up a whole new tourism market for New Orleans and the Mississippi Coast.”
Proponents believe the train will bring hundreds of millions of dollars in new tourism spending annually, and will create 45 full-time train operating jobs in Louisiana.
But critics, including several Mobile city councilmembers, have voiced concerns about the rail line’s long-term financial sustainability. As part of Monday’s agreement, the city put an expiration date on its financial support. That means rail proponents will still need to find a long-term funding source after the initial three years.
“The city accepts no responsibility for funding the line after the first three years,” said Mobile Councilman Joel Daves. “If the proponents of the rail service want it to continue after that time, they're going to have to go to someone else for the money.”
The New Orleans-Mobile connection comes as advocates hope to expand passenger rail throughout the Gulf South region. Louisiana’s Department of Transportation and Development is currently studying the feasibility of adding passenger rail between New Orleans and Baton Rouge.
New Orleans' Louis Armstrong International Airport is also working with the Federal Railroad Administration to add an Amtrak stop.
That route is still years away, said Ross, but the pieces are coming together.
“That one is not as real as Mobile to New Orleans, but there's a lot of work being done,” Ross said.
