Mobile’s new Amtrak Mardi Gras route to New Orleans starts August 18, tickets on sale now

Amtrak announced on July 1 that its Mardi Gras service route from Mobile to New Orleans will operate twice daily, beginning August 18.

The trip from Mobile to New Orleans will take approximately four hours, according to Amtrak.

Trains will depart Mobile at 6:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. There will be short stops at Pascagoula, Biloxi, Gulfport, and Bay Saint Louis. The morning train will arrive in New Orleans before noon, allowing travelers to catch afternoon Saints games and return on the departing train, which will leave around 5 p.m.

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Train between New Orleans and Baton Rouge still years away

A daily train connecting New Orleans and Baton Rouge is at least two to four years away, says John Spain, vice chair of the Southern Rail Commission.

The big picture: The tentative plan includes stops at Gonzales, LaPlace, two Baton Rouge locations, Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport and New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal, the Southern Rail Commission says.

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Amtrak announces Mardi Gras Service passenger rail just in time for football season

This could be interesting. If you're a New Orleans Saints fan living in the Gulf South, a new way to get to games this season just opened up to you with this week's Amtrak Mardi Gras Service announcement. Twice-a-day passenger trains will travel between Louisiana and Alabama with four stops in Mississippi beginning Monday, Aug. 18, just in time for football season, but the day after the Saints' preseason home game with the Jacksonville Jaguars. The move revives service that ran for decades before Hurricane Katrina.

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Amtrak train from New Orleans to Mobile has kickoff date. See ticket cost, schedule, more.

A brass band blared in New Orleans' Union Passenger Terminal downtown Tuesday as nearly two dozen people gathered to celebrate the return of Amtrak's Gulf Coast route on Aug. 18.

The route, called Amtrak Mardi Gras Service, will transport passengers between New Orleans and Mobile, Alabama, with stops in the Mississippi coastal cities of Bay St. Louis, Gulfport Biloxi and Pascagoula. It is the first passenger train line to run daily between New Orleans and Mobile since 1996, when the last service, Gulf Coast Limited, shut down.

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