Leaders Take Historic Trip across the Gulf Coast in Support of Passenger Rail Service

Passenger rail has historically played a significant role in safely transporting people across the nation effectively and economically. Rail services, such as Amtrak, interconnect cities throughout the country and at one time, connected the citizens of the Gulf Coast from New Orleans, Louisiana to Jacksonville, Florida.

However, following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, passenger rail service has not been available along this corridor for over ten years. In an effort to reestablish passenger rail along the Gulf Coast, the Southern Rail Commission (SRC) has been working to “engage and inform public and private rail interests to support and influence southeast rail initiatives”. Over the past decade, the SRC has helped leaders understand the benefits of passenger rail in the region and worked with Amtrak to develop a feasibility study on reinstating passenger rail along the coast.

To read more and to view photos, click here.

DeFuniak Springs rail service

While Tom McLaughlin’s front-page piece about the potential resumption of passenger rail service to the Gulf Coast was indeed welcome coverage, there were a few inaccuracies and omissions which I would like to bring to your readers’ attention.

Totally unmentioned in the story was the fact that DeFuniak Springs Mayor Bob Campbell, accompanied by this writer, boarded the Amtrak inspection train at Crestview and rode to Jacksonville, in an effort to call attention to the possibility of a potential train stop at DeFuniak Springs in Walton County. Aboard the train, the Mayor met with Amtrak, Southern Rail Commission and CSX officials, and also with former Meridian Mayor/Transportation for America chief John Robert Smith.

To read more, click here.

Southern Rail commissioners evaluate Gulf passenger rail trip

Success with the Gulf Coast passenger rail trip last month continues to resound in federal departments and in the halls of Congress, a Southern Rail commissioner said Friday at a follow-up meeting on rail service in Ocean Springs.

Knox Ross, secretary for the commission and mayor of Pelahatchie, said the trip was in many ways valuable to the effort to restore passenger rail service along the northern Gulf.

"The crowds were there," Ross told the group. Another commissioner commented, "the flags got bigger at every stop."

The Amtrak passenger test trip went from New Orleans to Jacksonville, a route that existed before Katrina.

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Southern Cities, Officials Applaud Amtrak Train Run

For the first time since Hurricane Katrina made landfall a decade ago, a passenger train is rolling from New Orleans to Jacksonville, Florida.

Yesterday and today, local mayors, governors and even senators have been aboard an Amtrak inspection train running between the Southern cities as part of an ongoing push to restore passenger rail service along the whole Gulf Coast, which never resumed after the 2005 storm.

Dozens of other major cities — including Nashville, Las Vegas and Phoenix — have lost Amtrak service in the last 50 years. If service between New Orleans and Jacksonville resumes, it will be the first passenger rail restored in the U.S. in a half-century, connecting myriad small towns and cities, including Pensacola, Tallahassee, Bay St. Louis, Gulfport and Biloxi.

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Y'all aboard! Festive crowds, high hopes greet rail dignitaries

As the first Amtrak train rolled into downtown Mobile for the first time in more than 10 years Thursday, Jim Gilbert and Tim Lloyd stood watching and waving the American flag.

It was a patriotic moment for the two Mobile men who want to see passenger rail return to the Gulf Coast, specifically Amtrak.

"We're not getting less people here but more people and you can't keep expanding lanes on the interstates," said Gilbert. "This is needed."

They joined a group of onlookers near the Arthur R. Outlaw Mobile Convention Center to welcome an Amtrak inspection train to Mobile as part of a two-day, four-state voyage that government and rail officials are undertaking to examine the conditions of a CSX freight line. The line would be utilized by Amtrak if passenger rail is reauthorized along the Gulf Coast from New Orleans to Jacksonville and Orlando.

To read more, click here.

GOP senator moves to study restoration of lost Amtrak service

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) is moving to test the feasibility of restoring Amtrak service on the Gulf Coast between New Orleans and Florida that has been dormant since Hurricane Katrina 10 years ago. 

Trains on Amtrak's Sunset Limited route, which used to run between Los Angeles and Orlando, have ended in New Orleans since the 2005 storm, which wiped out tracks along the Gulf of Mexico. 

Wicker said he is forming a new working group to study the return of the dormant Gulf Coast Amtrak service. 

“Today’s announcement marks the first concrete step in bringing back passenger rail service to the Gulf Coast,” Wicker said in a statement. "Passenger rail is an essential part of our national transportation network. Restoring this service along the Coast could have a monumental impact on the region’s economic development, as well as Mississippians’ quality of life.”

Amtrak is planning to operate a test train on the route, which includes stops in Alabama and the panhandle of Florida before it heads south to Orlando, to examine the feasibility of restoring the service, this week. 

The train will run from New Orleans to Orlando on Thursday and Friday with Amtrak leaders and elected officials, according to Amtrak officials.

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Don’t just click ‘like’ – show up

Tallahasseeans hoping to ride the rails again have an opportunity to show their support for the return of Amtrak passenger service at a celebration Friday at the train station on Railroad Avenue.

The first passenger train in more than a decade will roll into town as part of a 14-stop tour, and when it does, local officials hope residents show up in red, white and blue to send a message that Tallahassee supports rail service.

To read more, click here.

10 years after Katrina, Amtrak to make splashy return to Gulf Coast

Marching bands will lead pep rallies in Gulfport, Bay St. Louis and Biloxi while a jazz band will serenade a gathering in Pascagoula.

In Mobile, the Excelsior Band will be on hand in what could be a Mardi Gras-themed welcoming.

And all along the Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida Gulf coasts, people will be encouraged to show up, bring signs and wave banners in support of Amtrak's first trip from New Orleans east toward Jacksonville, Fla., since before Hurricane Katrina blasted through a decade ago.

"There is a lot of excitement about the possibilities," said Billy Hewes, mayor of Gulfport, Miss.

Coastal cities where the Amtrak "inspection train" will stop for 10-minute intervals on Thursday and Friday are planning for as much hoopla as they can cram into a short time frame. The purpose, according to city officials, is to make a good impression as a study moves forward on returning passenger rail service to the Gulf Coast.

To read more, click here.

New Amtrak study shows possibilities of service along the Coast

GULFPORT, MS (WLOX) -

The thought that there could be new passenger train stops on the Mississippi Gulf Coast has Southern Rail Commission member Ashley Edwards excited.

"This is an excellent first step. With a 10-year window there without any passenger rail service, we now have a number of people around the table talking about the return of this rail service," he said. "These are very serious conversations occurring at the highest levels."

A recently released study by Amtrak, which was requested by the Southern Rail Commission, talks about the possibility of connecting New Orleans to Orlando, FL, via the Sun Set Limited that originally began service in 1984.

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Officials pushing to return passenger rail to Gulf Coast

TALLAHASSEE — A multistate rail agency is asking Amtrak to return passenger trains to the Gulf Coast a decade after it canceled service in wake of Hurricane Katrina.

A culture of Mardi Gras that extends beyond New Orleans, theme parks, riverboats, cruise ports, casinos, and professional and college sports teams along the rail route already are a huge draw for Gulf Coast visitors.

“Now all we need is the train,” said Tallahassee City Commissioner Scott Maddox, who sat on the Amtrak Mayor’s Advisory Council when he was mayor from 1996 to 2003.

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