Amtrak officials are looking to expand travel across several southern states, and with new data centers coming to the area they have to find ways to help people get around.
An expansion of the passenger rail along the Interstate 20 corridor will be one of the big pieces to move workers to and from new data centers that are planned across the region, including one under construction in Richland Parish and others expected in Caddo Parish and Bossier Parish.
Mobile has seen 26,174 riders board the Amtrak Mardi Gras Service in just under seven months, and the city is outperforming New Orleans on a per‑capita basis among the two largest anchors of the coastal route.
Amtrak’s Mardi Gras Service may be exceeding early ridership projections, but a darker reality has emerged alongside the excitement: a rising number of tragic deaths at railroad crossings along the Gulf Coast.
Amtrak Mardi Gras Service concluded its inaugural quarter as one of the most successful service launches in the passenger rail operator's history.
According to the Southern Rail Commission (SRC), as of Jan. 31, nearly 70,500 passengers traveled on the Gulf Coast line since its inaugural run in August 2025, with ticket fares averaging $34 per person. Additionally, Amtrak's Customer Satisfaction Index survey shows 94.1% of passengers were extremely satisfied with their overall experience on the train, according to a press release from Visit Mobile.
We boarded the train at dawn. The stainless-steel cars glowed beneath the streetlamps of downtown Mobile, Alabama, ready for the engine’s pull. Inside our coach car, we hoisted our bags into the overhead storage and settled into two navy-blue leather seats. I peered out our window, where a line of passengers still waited to show the conductor their tickets. A young couple in shorts and sandals. A group of women wearing matching pink family-reunion T-shirts. A father and his elementary-age son, who wore glasses and a flat-billed hat and held his dad’s hand.
Even at the annual Rex and Comus balls in New Orleans, the talk drifts toward Amtrak trains and the roots of Mardi Gras.
An exchange involving historians Errol LaBorde and Arthur Hardy during the ball’s livestream discussed the revived Gulf Coast route, Mobile’s significance as the “Birthplace of Mardi Gras,” and the connections of trains to Carnival.
I’m chowing down on a mini King Cake, my breakfast. It’s a braided cinnamon Danish sprinkled with purple, green, and gold edible, with a cream cheese filling and a little plastic baby perched astride. The baby represents the infant Jesus and is said to bring luck (and an obligation to host the next fête, if he shows up in your slice.)
On more than one occasion during my time on America’s Gulf Coast, I found myself woken by the sound of a train horn in the night, not sure if it was real or in my head.
The seemingly constant honk of the Amtrak is a reminder in these parts that rail is back in business, a dream made a reality for locals after a twenty-year absence due to the nightmare devastation of Hurricane Katrina.
Amtrak Mardi Gras Service will operate with an additional coach car starting Friday and running continuously through the Carnival season.
The bonus car will be added to trains 23 and 26 of the four itineraries between Mobile and New Orleans, according to a news release from Visit Mobile on Thursday. Train 23 departs Mobile to New Orleans daily at 6:30 a.m., and Train 26 departs New Orleans for Mobile daily at 5:31 p.m.
In anticipation of what promises to be an exciting adventure for new or experienced rail passengers, Amtrak has informed the Southern Rail Commission (SRC) and Visit Mobile that an additional coach car will be added ahead and for the duration of the Mardi Gras season. The additional capacity will begin on Friday, January 9 and extend to Monday, February 23, 2026.