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.