UPDATE: Mobile Amtrak closer to service with new $178M grant

The ongoing story of the Amtrak passenger train between Mobile and New Orleans continues to unfold, and the newest chapter is an exciting one. With a new $178M grant, the Mardi

The new grant for Amtrak passenger service in Mobile

On Thursday, September 21, the Federal Railroad Commission authorized a $178M grant. According to NOLA.com, the source of the federal money is the the 2022 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

The grant funds will be used to for a new platform in Mobile, as well as track improvements.

“Mobile’s platform was the last missing piece in the ADA compliance and now Amtrak will be able to accomplish that.”

John Robert Smith, Chairman, Transportation for America (as quoted in WPMI)

With this grant, the Amtrak between Mobile and New Orleans is that much closer to carrying passengers back and forth between the Port City and The Big Easy.

Mobile Amtrak—the story so far

This grant is the latest news in a series of events stretching back years. Let’s do a little recap.

• March 2021: Amtrak and the Southern Railroad Commission announced plans to run a passenger train from Mobile to New Orleans, wittily-named the “Mardi Gras Express,” set to open by 2022. Spoiler alert—that didn’t happen. 
• February-March 2022: Controversy over the planned railway started heating up, and meetings were held to address it. In short, CSX runs the railway and didn’t want the Mardi Gras Express to come to fruition due to concerns over delayed shipping times. 
• April 2022: Amtrak responded to pushback by live-streaming a portion of the railway on Twitch which showed tracks that were mostly empty through the span of a work day. This interesting response to the controversy was meant to show that the tracks could handle a passenger train with interfering with CSX’s needs, but CSX said that the video was not an accurate representation. 
• November 2022: Amtrak reached an agreement with opposing parties (including Alabama Port Authority, CSX and Norfolk Southern Railroads), but start date was unknown. 
• August 2023: At the Alabama Governor’s Conference on Tourism, Grey Brennan, Deputy Director at the Alabama Tourism Department, announced the Mardi Gras Express is expected to start rolling in January 2024. The date is still yet to be confirmed.

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