Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has list of projects from Louisiana to consider

Louisiana will get its share of the more than $1 trillion in infrastructure spending that President Joe Biden and Congress are sending to states, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Friday.

But he doesn’t have any news yet for state officials and residents clamoring for approval of their favored projects, Buttigieg said in an interview at the Essence Festival in New Orleans, before appearing on a panel with two other cabinet officials.

Louisiana has a long wish list, including expanded passenger rail for New Orleans, the possible removal of the Claiborne Expressway and a new bridge for Baton Rouge.

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Gulf Coast train route: Amtrak heads to mediation with access to new traffic data

A federal board has ruled freight rail company CSX must share previously unseen traffic data with Amtrak as the two move toward mediation over the future of the proposed Gulf Coast train route. 

The Surface Transportation Board’s ruling came Friday and calls for CSX to grant Amtrak access to materials the freight company had designated as “highly confidential.” Amtrak needs that information to create traffic studies to show the impacts a proposed passenger train could have on the route. 

The board is asking all parties – including Amtrak and CSX – to file traffic studies as evidence and ordered them to meet with a mediator. 

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CSX, NS again ask for mediation in Gulf Coast case; Amtrak remains opposed

Freight railroads, Mobile port chance mediation could succeed has increased; Amtrak says railroads turn down request for modeling, other information

The freight railroads involved in the Surface Transportation Board’s proceeding over Gulf Coast passenger service have again asked that the matter be sent to mediation — and Amtrak is again opposing that request.

In a May 19 filing, CSX Transportation, Norfolk Southern, and the Alabama State Port Authority and its its short line renewed a request for mediation they previously made in March [see “CSX, NS ask regulators to order mediation …,” Trains News Wire, March 28, 2022].

Amtrak opposed that request, which was quickly turned down by the STB on the grounds that not all parties  favored mediation. But the board’ said the parties would be free to ask again following the conclusion of the hearing on the case [see “STB denies mediation request …,” News Wire, April 1].

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Louisiana lawmaker seeks funds toward Amtrak route along I-20 corridor

Louisiana state Sen. Greg Tarver has made a proposal to the state Senate to get $10 million allocated for Northwest Louisiana to go toward the Amtrak passenger rail route that would follow the I-20 corridor between Dallas and Atlanta.

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Secrecy issues dominate as Gulf Coast STB hearing continues: Analysis

Cross-examination of Jim Blair, Amtrak’s senior director of host railroads, consumed the full 8-hour, 28-minute session Monday as the Surface Transportation Board’s hearing on the effort to launch passenger service between New Orleans and Mobile, Ala., resumed after an almost three-week hiatus.

Blair was questioned by lawyers from Norfolk Southern, CSX Transportation, and the Port of Mobile; redirect questioning from an Amtrak attorney was held over until the hearing resumes today (Wednesday, May 11), at 9:30 a.m. EDT. That session will be lived streamed at the STB YouTube channel, which also has recordings of Monday’s session and those of the previous eight days.

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People vs. cargo: How a battle over Amtrak’s Gulf Coast line could shape the future of passenger rail

Ever since Hurricane Katrina swept across the Deep South in 2005, shredding the region’s railways, it’s been impossible to take a train heading east from New Orleans to the rest of the Gulf Coast. For years, Amtrak has been trying to restore service in the form of a twice-a-day line between New Orleans and Mobile, Alabama. But it’s met fierce resistance from two rail giants — CSX and Norfolk Southern — which own most of the tracks that the agency wants to use.

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Amtrak runs Baton Rouge-New Orleans inspection train

Trip including governor, railroad CEOs touts partnership hinging on approval of CP-KCS merger

A decades-long effort to create a Louisiana passenger rail corridor between the state capital of Baton Rouge and New Orleans moved a step closer Wednesday when Gov. John Bel Edwards joined Amtrak, federal, and railroad officials on an inspection run along the route.

Among those joining the governor, a Democrat, were Amit Bose, Federal Railroad Administration administrator; Canadian Pacific CEO Keith Creel and his Kansas City Southern counterpart, Pat Ottensmeyer; and Amtrak President Stephen Gardner.

The 12-car KCS consist reprises colors of the route’s last scheduled passenger train, the Southern Belle, which made its final run in 1969. The event was especially significant, because attempts to conduct passenger inspection trips on the 80-mile Baton Rouge-New Orleans route had been rebuffed for more than 20 years.

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Amtrak dumps its nice guy persona in fight for Gulf Coast trains

Amtrak is embroiled in a fight that may have vast implications for the future of US rail service, including the billions of dollars devoted to it from the bipartisan infrastructure bill.

Amtrak, which typically speaks in a mild-mannered tone on social media, has reinvented itself as a flamethrower that's launching snarky missives at the freight railroad companies that it says are blocking passenger train travel on the Gulf Coast.

Amtrak trains outside the Northeast corridor generally run on tracks owned by freight railroads, sharing the tracks on an agreed upon schedule, though unexpected delays occur when the freight railroads deviate from the schedule and run their own trains hours ahead or behind schedule.

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Riding the rails to determine needed Baton Rouge-to-NOLA upgrades

A train used to identify rail upgrades needed for passenger service will carry state and federal officials and railroad executives from Baton Rouge to New Orleans today. 

The inspection is a necessary step for establishing passenger rail between the cities. The event also is expected to bring together key decision-makers for the planned route, including Gov. John Bel Edwards, transportation Secretary Shawn Wilson, Federal Railroad Administration head Amit Bose, and executives with Amtrak, Kansas City Southern Rail and Canadian Pacific Railway. 

“Those are all of the partners that have to come together to make it happen,” says John Spain, vice chair of the Southern Rail Commission and executive vice president of the Baton Rouge Area Foundation.

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Snarky tweets, time lapse videos: How the Gulf Coast train beef between Amtrak and CSX is intensifying

Marc Magilari leaned against a railing at a community civic center, perched above the railway as a CSX freight train roared by. 

It was the fourth train to come through Bay St. Louis that Wednesday, just after 4 p.m. Magilari, a spokesman for Amtrak, and a small camera had been keeping watch since 8 a.m. to survey the train traffic. It rolled footage of hours of empty tracks live on Twitch. 

In a railroad beef that’s been building for years, Amtrak has turned to live streams, snarky tweets and time lapse videos to help prove its point: Passenger and freight trains can coexist on the railways that run through Mississippi from Mobile to New Orleans. 

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