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Tag: Gulf Coast Inspection Train

Building momentum for a national passenger rail network

A crowd of people gathers by an Amtrak train, a U.S. flag waving above them.

After the setbacks of the late 90s and early 2000s, passenger rail advocates along the Gulf Coast were not discouraged. Through the work of a Regional Rail Commission and the cultivation of relationships with local, regional, and federal leaders, these advocates were able to build a foundation for the implementation of passenger rail restoration in the region.

In recognition of recent progress for passenger service in the Coastal South, we’re releasing a four-part series exploring how unified regional and national approaches, supported by local advocacy and sound policy, can help create a successful passenger rail network. This is part two of the series, written by Mehr Mukhtar and London Weier. Read part one, part three, and part four.

Hundreds of Gulfport, MS residents greet Amtrak representatives and local officials as the inspection train arrives Thursday, February 18, 2016. (Tim Meuller)

In our last article on passenger rail, we ended on the double blow caused by Hurricane Katrina coupled with years of consistent divestment away from passenger rail. The impacts of these years weren’t unique to the Gulf Coast, with the negative impacts of divestment away from passenger rail service being felt across the nation. Reversing these trends has taken consistent efforts from champions to build both momentum and support for passenger rail.

The Southern Rail Commission, T4A, and other champions built relationships, cultivated policy, and established a desire for funding to grow the presence of passenger rail in the region. While these efforts aren’t unique to the Gulf Coast, we can turn our attention to this corner of the nation as a strong example of how to address this multitude of challenges, even when the odds are stacked against you.

The creation of the Southern Rail Commission

Authorized by Congress in 1982 as the nation’s first Regional Rail Commission, the SRC was awarded a designation as a future high-speed rail corridor along the Gulf Coast and up through Meridian, Mississippi. This was reflective of the momentum for passenger rail that had been building in the country.

For years, the SRC worked to expand rail in the Gulf Coast and connect regional lines with long distance ones, ultimately resulting in the first truly transcontinental rail line in American history. The designation as a future high-speed rail corridor further exemplified support for expanding passenger rail as it made available federal funds necessary for project planning and implementation. Yet, following Hurricane Katrina, the loss of crucial passenger rail connections was ignored in the great recovery despite the restoration of all other critical infrastructure.

The SRC stepped into this void, bringing the matter to local, regional, and national attention. A national energy for the restoration of passenger rail did not emerge out of thin air, rather, it was the concerted efforts on behalf of leaders across the country who optimistically believed in the reality of the train.

Map showing the stops of the restored route from New Orleans to Mobile, making stops in Bay St. Louis, Gulfport, Biloxi, and Pascagoula along the way.
(Southern Rail Commission)

Building excitement, locally and nationally

Elected officials, mayors, federal representatives, and community leaders tirelessly advocated for the economic, cultural, and mobility opportunities that the service had the potential to restore. Relationships were cultivated with advocates in Congress and the Senate, with leaders such as Senator Roger Wicker (MS) and Senator Thad Cochran (MS), who took positions as champions for expanding the national rail network, including restoring service on the Gulf Coast.

The Gulf Coast Working Group (GCWG) was authorized by Congress in 2015 to oversee the prospect of restoring passenger rail service, bringing attention to passenger rail as the backbone of the transportation system. Members of the group were tasked with evaluating options for intercity passenger rail restoration, selecting a preferred option for the route, and determining federal and non-federal funding mechanisms necessary to the restoration. Findings of the GCWG, as reported to Congress in 2017 in the Gulf Coast Working Group Report, determined that the first service that should be restored would be the New Orleans to Mobile route.

In the midst of developing the Gulf Coast Working Group Report, the Southern Rail Commission coordinated with the Federal Railroad Administration, Amtrak, and state and federal leaders to build local and regional excitement for the initiative. A defining moment arrived for the restoration of Gulf Coast passenger rail with the ride-along in 2016. The inspection train, traversing from New Orleans, LA to Jacksonville, FL, helped identify a potential route and examine the existing freight line infrastructure.

The inspection train arrives in Mobile, greeted by a crowd lined up by the tracks
(Amtrak)

As the train rolled into Mobile for the first time in nearly a decade, the passion for the rail line was on palpable display. Cheering crowds flocked to the platform showcasing the community’s desire to restore the rail connection and options for transportation and mobility for the region. Scores of people continued to throng the route to watch the train run, even when the train wouldn’t stop in their community, serving as testament to what restored service represented for communities in the Southeast—and proof of the political will needed for service to return. Transportation for America has worked with the SRC to build on this momentum through policy advocacy at the federal level.

Negotiations begin

Restoration of passenger rail faced numerous obstacles in its implementation, one of them being disagreements amongst freight rail carriers on the infrastructure requirements for the route. Freight carriers, CSX and Norfolk Southern, expressed concern about capacity challenges when their existing rail infrastructure would need to accommodate passenger rail trips.

Continued support and involvement from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) helped resolve the disagreements and ensure that passenger service would be restored. In fact, the FRA’s involvement in the Gulf Coast Working Group Report to Congress found solutions to shared track schedules and illustrated the numerous benefits that track restoration would have to both freight rail and passenger rail. The success of these negotiations underscored the importance of collecting reliable and transparent rail data, and the ongoing value of collaboration between freight and passenger rail.

Political advocacy, community engagement, and the evolving discussions with freight rail laid the groundwork for restored passenger rail along the Gulf Coast. These efforts made it possible to begin negotiations and construction, but there are still some necessary components needed to make it to the finish line, most notably funding. Stay tuned for the next part of this series when we explore how the momentum for this cause is translated into implementation and wins!

Four years ago, Gulf Coast rail was a dream. Now it’s closer to reality thanks to the City of Mobile, AL

At long last, the City of Mobile, AL approved a resolution that brings passenger rail to New Orleans closer to fruition. The timing is fitting: February marked the fourth anniversary of the first passenger train to roll through the Gulf Coast since Hurricane Katrina. That was just a one-time ride, but not for much longer: In 2022, there will be four trains a day. 

Mobile, Alabama. Photo by Steve Davis / T4America

This February, the City of Mobile, AL took a bold step toward restoring passenger rail service to New Orleans: the city approved the funding necessary to apply for a $8 million grant from Federal Railroad Administration’s Restoration and Enhancement (R&E) program. If the FRA awards this grant, the funding approved by Mobile will be combined with existing funding from Mississippi, Louisiana, and a previous R&E grant to provide operating support for the first three years of restored rail service. 

By a 6-1 city council vote in favor of funding, the City of Mobile demonstrated it understands the tremendous economic and mobility opportunity this passenger rail service represents. This is one of the final pieces of funding necessary to restore service, and we at T4America are thrilled to see the City of Mobile take this action.   

But none of this was imaginable four years ago. In February 2016, an Amtrak train left New Orleans and headed east towards Bay St. Louis, a beautiful town on the Mississippi coast, for the first time since Hurricane Katrina. 

Eleven years earlier, Katrina devastated many cities and towns along the Gulf Coast. By 2016, freight rail had been restored for almost a decade, but not the Amtrak service that ran between New Orleans and Mobile. Bringing the service back after so long took some convincing: the FRA conducted a feasibility study, and the Southern Rail Commission, the  University of Southern Mississippi, and the University of Alabama conducted fiscal analyses that showed the potential impact of bringing the train back. The University of Southern Mississippi study even found that for every dollar invested in restoring passenger service, $15 to $20 would be generated in the regional economy. 

These detailed studies undoubtedly played a huge role in winning a $33 million grant from the FRA to bring back passenger rail to the Gulf Coast. But sometimes, people have to see something in action to believe that it will work. That’s where the inspection train came in. 

Amtrak, in partnership with freight rail operator CSX and the Southern Rail Commission, ran a train full of elected, civic and other local leaders from the Gulf Coast and beyond from New Orleans to Jacksonville, FL to assess the feasibility of restoring passenger service, as well as the popularity of such a route. And the popularity was astounding. 

“I was on that train, and I will never forget the moment we rolled into Bay St. Louis for the first stop after departing New Orleans,” T4America’s communications director, Steve Davis, later wrote. “Conversations halted immediately as we were taken aback by the overwhelming sights and sounds of Bay St. Louis. Schools were closed, bands were playing, costumes were donned, and it seemed like the entire city had turned out to see the first passenger train in 11 years.” 

It wasn’t just Bay St. Louis. At every station between New Orleans and Jacksonville, the train was greeted by thousands of cheering supporters. Administrator Sara Feinberg of the FRA was clearly taken aback as she stepped off the train, shaking hands with excited residents lining the train platform and pulling out her phone to take pictures of her own. Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development Secretary Shawn Wilson posed for pictures with smiling and yelling residents like he was a rock star.

“I knew there was pent up enthusiasm for passenger rail, but I think all of us were astonished by the size of the crowds,” said John Robert Smith, the chair of T4America and a former Mississippi mayor.  “The crowds were so diverse: old, young, all ethnicities, and all economic abilities. Everyone on that train walked away with the sense that this passenger service will not only work but thrive, because it links two big cities with the smaller, equally important cities on the Gulf.” 

Four years later, that inspection train wasn’t just a test: it was a taste of what’s to come. Mississippi Republican Senator Roger Wicker led the creation of two important rail grant programs—the Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) and the R&E grant that Mobile just applied for. The Southern Rail Commission won grants from both programs in 2019 to bring back Gulf Coast passenger rail, but they also needed commitments from the states and cities involved, like Mobile, to make it happen. 

Mississippi, Louisiana, and now Alabama have followed suit, with the City of Mobile committing $3 million, Mississippi matching the federal grants, and Louisiana providing priority funds. Amtrak estimates that service will be restored in two years, running four trains every day between New Orleans and Mobile. 

“Think about what this means for Mobile,” said Smith of Mobile’s recent commitment to restoring passenger rail. “The Gulf Coast is celebrating Mardi Gras right now. New Orleans gets most of the attention, but Mobile hosts a huge Mardi Gras celebration too. With passenger rail, the thousands of tourists to New Orleans can visit Mobile’s Mardi Gras celebration.”

At T4America, we’re still thrilled that the inspection train—and all of the hard work from advocates, community members, business leaders, and elected and government officials—led to something permanent. And we hope that other regions of the country can do the same.

Carrying the message of Gulf Coast support for passenger rail up to Capitol Hill

After last week’s inspiring rail trip along the Gulf Coast where we witnessed firsthand the massive support for restoring passenger rail service along the coast, a member of the Southern Rail Commission testified before the Senate’s key rail committee earlier this week to deliver the same message Gulf Coast citizens so passionately presented at each stop last week.

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, addresses the enormous crowd in Gulfport on the second stop of the Gulf Coast Inspection Train. Photo by Steve Davis / T4America

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, addresses the enormous crowd in Gulfport on the second stop of the Gulf Coast Inspection Train. Photo by Steve Davis / T4America

Mayor Knox Ross, the mayor of Pelahatchie, Mississippi and one of the state’s representatives appointed to the tri-state Southern Rail Commission (SRC), came to Washington following last week’s trip to deliver testimony to the Senate Commerce Committee for a previously scheduled hearing on America’s passenger rail system. Note: T4America serves as policy advisors for the SRC. -Ed. 

In a refreshingly moving bit of testimony before the eleven committee members present, Mayor Ross shared his experiences from last week and urged the members to build on the groundwork laid by this very committee’s hard work to include smart passenger rail policy in last year’s broader surface transportation bill for the first time in history. (The FAST Act.)

Knox Ross Senate Commerce

“As our commission has visited communities across the gulf South, we have found the transportation options available to our citizens are becoming more limited and costly,” Mayor Ross told the committee. He noted in his written testimony how other options like air service and intercity buses have scaled back in the last decade in many of the rural communities along the coast, and how citizens have responded to this possibility of having a new connection between cities small and large.

“We saw an amazing outpouring of support in every city. …They just want an opportunity. Every city turned out. They’re looking for a hand up and saw Amtrak service as that opportunity,”

Just like the other local officials we spoke to, Mayor Ross sees this passenger rail connection as a powerful economic development tool for these Gulf Coast cities, small and large.

“We’re gearing toward connecting our smaller cities to our larger ones and giving these cities the opportunity to compete. All the cities along this route see the economic development potential of the train,” he said, drawing the same parallel to the interstate system that we did in our second post on the trip. “We invested in the national interstate system years ago and saw tremendous economic development, but now we’re having to put more money than ever into it with diminishing returns as we add lanes. Every modest investment in passenger trains across this country can create large economic development opportunities in all these cities.”

The impact of last week’s trip wasn’t lost on the outgoing Amtrak President and CEO Joseph Boardman, who also testified Tuesday. “I think the excitement you saw last week is dramatic evidence of just how much we can bring to those towns – and how deeply they appreciate it,” he said.

“We all have an interest in ensuring that Amtrak continues to be as effective as possible, and that the American people in all regions of the country receive the passenger service they deserve. …The respective needs wherever you are in this network, for state corridors, long distance services, and the northeast corridor, and unifying those interests here in congress and across the country is critically important,” Mr. Boardman said.

Before the testimony began, the committee showed the short movie about the trip that T4America produced.

Mayor Ross followed up with perhaps the most powerful observation from the trip; the one was that stuck in the heads of many of the people we talked to along the way.

“One thing I hope you saw in that film….you saw black, white, republican, democrat. This is a bipartisan issue that we can all back and all agree on, an issue that can help bring our country together.”

A look back at the overwhelming support for restoring Gulf Coast passenger rail [VIDEO]

The Gulf Coast inspection train, run by Amtrak in partnership with the Southern Rail Commission (SRC), toured a potential route and examined the CSX tracks last week from February 18-19th. It was the product of years of work by local residents and elected leaders at almost all levels to restore the passenger rail service wiped out by Katrina over ten years ago.

Note: Transportation for America serves in an official capacity as policy advisors for SRC. -Ed.

Transportation for America was along for the ride, interviewing local residents and the local, state and federal elected officials along the two-day route. Read all of our posts on the trip here in order:

And don’t miss this short video below that we produced on the trip, which was shown to the Senate Commerce Committee this morning in a hearing on passenger rail issues.

Gulf Coast leaders intent on boosting their economic prospects with passenger rail

While the local residents who turned out along the Gulf Coast last week to support the return of passenger rail through their communities are perhaps most hopeful for a new way to get where they want to go, their leaders are focused intently on the significant economic development potential for their cities, region and states that will come from the new connection.

Amtrak inspection train bay st. louis wide

The Gulf Coast inspection train, run by Amtrak in partnership with the Southern Rail Commission (SRC), toured a potential route and examined the CSX tracks on February 18-19. It’s the product of years of work by local residents and elected leaders at almost all levels to restore the passenger rail service wiped out by Katrina over ten years ago. Read our first post for the backstory and our second post on the people we saw along the way. Note: Transportation for America serves in an official capacity as policy advisors for SRC. -Ed.

This prospective Gulf Coast passenger rail line would add a brand new connection, which can provide more bang for the buck than the diminishing returns of making improvements to existing connections. The interstate highway system is a powerful example of this. There were amazing economic impacts when new interstates were built between cities that weren’t well connected, allowing goods and people to flow back and forth like they never could before. But 50 years later, when projects are undertaken to add a lane or two to those existing highways, the cost could be greater than the original project in today’s dollars, but the actual fiscal impacts are far less than that of the original connection.

Adding new passenger rail service would create a brand new efficient connection between these Gulf Coast cities. And no matter their party or political philosophy, every single one of the local leaders that we spoke to along the coast was focused on the economic potential of passenger rail for their communities.

Greater New Orleans, Inc. is focused on helping the entire region stay competitive and focuses significant energy on recruiting new businesses to the region. GNOI’s Lacy Strohschein told us that for New Orleans, which has emerged as a tech hub, to compete against peer cities like Austin and Seattle, “You have to be selling them something.” Quality of life is a huge piece of what they’re selling in New Orleans, but what else does that talent want?

“They want access, they want to be in connected, walkable urban downtowns. Many come from places where they’re used to jumping on the train,” she said as we traveled just east of New Orleans on the train Thursday morning. “We have the most beautiful beaches within five hours of New Orleans, but if they don’t want to drive, there’s no easy way to get there. There’s a bottom line return, and [passenger rail service] is a critical piece to the puzzle for the quality of life that we’re offering.”

Gulfport is the second biggest city in the state of Mississippi. It was hit hard by Hurricane Katrina, though the city has bounced back in the intervening decade.

“I believe [passenger rail] is one more link in the chain that helps us recover,” said Gulfport Mayor Billy Hewes while chatting in the one-of-a-kind Ocean View dome car between Bay St. Louis and Gulfport.

Gulfport Mayor Billy Hewes chatting on the ride into Gulfport on February 18, 2016. Photo courtesy of Charles Gomez / Amtrak

Gulfport Mayor Billy Hewes chatting on the ride into Gulfport on February 18, 2016. Photo courtesy of Charles Gomez / Amtrak

Half a billion dollars come into Gulfport’s state port each year and drawing tourists to the beaches of Gulfport is a critical part of their local economy, according to Mayor Hewes. “We’re doing quite well now, but this is adding another piece of that puzzle that we’re offering,” he said.

When the train pulled into Gulfport, where a thousand or more people were packed in between the old depot and a downtown parking garage, Mayor Hewes was beaming as he took to the podium.

“Your enthusiasm today is sending a message to Washington and our friends with Amtrak, how much we would like to have [rail service] back,” Hewes spoke into the microphone. “How much this is a real piece — not the final piece, but another piece of the puzzle — for what we’re offering, for the amenities that we have that make us so rich with so much opportunity here in Gulfport and across the entire Gulf Coast.”

Hundreds of Gulfport residents packed the space next to the depot for the second whistle stop of the Gulf Coast Inspection Train. Photo by Steve Davis / T4America

Hundreds of Gulfport residents packed the space next to the depot for the second whistle stop of the Gulf Coast Inspection Train. Photo by Steve Davis / T4America

One of the biggest champions of this project has been Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant, who took several hours out of his busy day to board the train in Bay St. Louis with his wife for all of the Mississippi stops. It’s hard to overstate the impact of his leadership on this issue, as a conservative Republican governor from a deep South state. Gov. Bryant clearly understands the economic potential.

Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant (right) talks to Gulfport Mayor Billy Hewes (left) and FRA Administrator Sara Feinberg (right of Hewes) on the Gulf Coast Inspection Train on February 18, 2016.

Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant (right) talks to Gulfport Mayor Billy Hewes (left) and Federal Railroad Administrator Sara Feinberg (right of Hewes) on the Gulf Coast Inspection Train on February 18, 2016. Photo by Steve Davis / T4America

“I brought convention after convention here [to the Gulf Coast]. Each time…they say to me, ‘We had no idea how beautiful this Gulf Coast was,'” Governor Bryant told the enormous crowd in Gulfport, hammering home the potential of making it easier for visitors to reach the Mississippi coast.

“Now, we’re going to get them here. We’re going to get them on board and we’re going to get them on this train. And this is going to be where they talk to all of their friends, all across the nation, and say, ‘If you want to see the beauty of God’s great creation, come to the Mississippi Gulf Coast,” he said.

“We just need more people to come and see this beautiful city; come see this beautiful Gulf Coast,” Gov. Bryant bellowed one stop further down the tracks in Biloxi. These people need “to come and stay a week or a month or two — and bring their money with ’em!” Gov. Bryant exclaimed, to an explosion of applause from the residents of Biloxi.

Mobile, Alabama is a huge center of commerce and industry for the state of Alabama and the entire Gulf Coast region. The city has the first Airbus factory on U.S. soil, an active shipbuilding industry, a busy port, interstate access and five railroads, according to Mobile District 1 City Councilmember and Council Vice President Fred Richardson.

Mobile City Councilmember Fred Richardson talking to a member of the media in New Orleans before the departure of the Gulf Coast Inspection Train. Photo by Steve Davis / T4America

Mobile City Councilmember Fred Richardson talking to a member of the media in New Orleans just before the departure of the Gulf Coast Inspection Train. Photo by Steve Davis / T4America

“We all realize the value of passenger rail,” Councilemember Richardson said, offering a specific example.

“We have the busy Carnival cruise ships in the port…but is there another way to get all these tourists to and into our city? We’ve got air, we’ve got water, but we don’t have rail. So we’re trying to send a message today; a message that old people, young people, black and white people in Mobile — they want Amtrak and passenger rail. It’s galvanized people in our region and they want the train to roll. We’re missing this part of the puzzle that can help us bring another one million tourists into our city.”

Mobile, Alabama. Photo by Steve Davis / T4AmericaMobile, Alabama. Photo by Steve Davis / T4America
Mobile, Alabama. Photos by Steve Davis / T4America

Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS), who is responsible for the creation of the new Gulf Coast rail study group through his work to include it in the FAST Act, is working to ensure that new passenger rail service on the coast will also be a good deal.

“We’ve got the top brass, we’ve got the local leaders, and we’re gonna make this work for Mississippi and the taxpayers,” The Senator said in Gulfport.

#YallAboard

Update: Find links to all of our posts and photos from the trip as well as a short video we produced on the trip here in this short recap post.

Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS) addresses the enormous crowd in Gulfport on the second stop of the Gulf Coast Inspection Train. Photo by Steve Davis / T4America

Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS) addresses the enormous crowd in Gulfport on the second stop of the Gulf Coast Inspection Train. Photo by Steve Davis / T4America

A massive show of support in Gulf Coast communities for passenger rail

A massive show of support yesterday from the people of the Gulf Coast welcomed the first passenger rail train east of New Orleans since Katrina, with thousands of residents in scores of communities from New Orleans to Atmore, Alabama turning out to send a clear message to their elected leaders that they want passenger rail service back.

Atmore, Alabama

Atmore, Alabama

This week’s Gulf Coast inspection train, run by Amtrak in partnership with the Southern Rail Commission (SRC), is touring a potential route and examining the CSX tracks. It’s the product of years of work by local residents and elected leaders at almost all levels to restore the passenger rail service wiped out by Katrina over ten years ago. Read our first post for the backstory. Note: Transportation for America serves in an official capacity as policy advisors for SRC. -Ed.

#YallAboard

Although everyone involved with this trip had heard there were festivities planned in each stop along the way, no one seemed to be ready for what awaited us in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. People in conversation on the train stopped cold as they heard a band playing and a crowd cheering before the doors even opened on the train. Elected officials were clearly overwhelmed by the show of support as they stepped off the train to take a champagne toast to the first passenger train to stop in the city since Katrina.

Administrator Sara Feinberg of the Federal Railroad Administration was clearly taken aback as she stepped off the train, shaking hands with excited residents lining the train platform and pulling out her phone to take pictures of her own. Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development Secretary Shawn Wilson posed for pictures with smiling and yelling residents like he was a rock star.

Shawn Wilson, Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, takes photos of the crowd in Bay St. Louis, MS.

Shawn Wilson, Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, takes photos of the crowd in Bay St. Louis, MS.

As John Sharp wrote in AL.com after riding from New Orleans to Mobile, it felt like a cathartic moment for this city that was devastated by Hurricane Katrina and has fought for years to bounce back. Schools were closed yesterday morning, costumes were donned, signs were made, songs were played, and the small community of Bay St. Louis made a powerful, moving display of support for restoring passenger rail to the city, bringing tourists to their beautiful city and giving residents a new option for getting back and forth along the coast to wherever they’d like to go.

Rich people, poor people, black people, white people, young people, old people — all asking their elected leaders for the same thing: We want passenger rail back on the Gulf Coast.

Gulf Coast rail trip gulfport people

This moving scene was repeated again and again at each stop in Gulfport, Biloxi, and Pascagoula, Mississippi, and Mobile and Atmore, Alabama. In Gulfport, the second biggest city in the state, the crowd was so huge squeezed between the depot and a parking garage, you could hardly see a spot without people.

Gulf Coast rail trip gulfport crowd

Giant American flags were hung from fire department ladder trucks in almost every city. And not once did we leave the train without being accompanied by a band — including the historic Excelsior Band in Mobile. There was visible support even in communities along the way without a stop, like Ocean Springs, Mississippi, where children lined the fence by the tracks and waved at every crossing.

It was an incredible sight to see, and it had a palpable, powerful effect on the elected officials and VIPs from Washington on board. None of them will be able to go back to work in their government offices without thinking of the faces of the people they saw on this trip and how excited they were about the prospect of seeing this vital connection restored.

Gulf Coast Rail Trip Pascagoula 2

Pascagoula, Mississippi

We’ll have more later on from some of the mayors and other local leaders we’ve talked to this week. Each one we spoke to zeroed in on the economic potential of having this connection restored. All spoke eloquently about how passenger rail is a piece of the puzzle for staying competitive and helping move their people. And elected leaders from the cities, states and Congress all spoke passionately about how they’re working to make this service happen in a way that’s a good deal for taxpayers. We’ll get to their inspiring speeches too.

But it would be a mistake to start a look back on the trip anywhere other than with the amazing and inspiring people of the Gulf Coast who turned up yesterday — in the middle of a workday no less — to show their support for what their elected leaders are working hard to accomplish for them. They don’t appear to care a lick about the political or philosophical debate over transportation modes or funding that dominates conversations in Washington.

They just want to have another way to get where they want to go.

Y’all aboard.

Continue following along with the trip on Twitter with #YallAboard and @t4america

Update: Find links to all of our posts and photos from the trip as well as a short video we produced on the trip here in this short recap post.

Gulf Coast Rail Trip Atmore tribal girls

Atmore, Alabama

Gulf Coast rail trip Bay St. Louis

Bay St. Louis, Mississippi

Gulf Coast rail trip Bay St. Louis 2

Bay St. Louis, Mississippi

Gulf Coast Rail Trip Pascagoula

Pascagoula, Mississippi

Gulf Coast Rail Trip Mobile sign man

Mobile, Alabama

A first step toward restoring passenger rail to the Gulf Coast

A train full of elected, civic and other local leaders from the Gulf Coast and beyond will ride a special Amtrak inspection train from New Orleans to Jacksonville, Florida this week — a step toward restoring the passenger rail service east of New Orleans wiped out by Hurricane Katrina more than ten years ago — and Transportation for America will be along for the ride.

When Hurricane Katrina came ashore in September of 2005, it wreaked havoc on all aspects of the Gulf Coast’s transportation network. Roads were underwater, bridges were washed away, transit systems shut down, airports closed temporarily, and passenger/freight rail through the most heavily afflicted region east of New Orleans closed indefinitely. After months and years of rebuilding in the region, including a mammoth five-month rebuilding effort along the CSX-owned freight rail line (also used by passenger trains) to reconnect the region, every one of those transportation modes was eventually restored.

Every one of those modes, that is, except for passenger rail service from New Orleans to Florida along those same CSX tracks.

That could be about to change, and this week will be the first chapter in the story of how that could happen. Well, it’s more like the fifth or sixth chapter, because the inspection train being run this week from New Orleans to Jacksonville by Amtrak in partnership with the Southern Rail Commission and CSX is not the beginning of the story.

This week, we’re going to be telling more of this story of how a coalition of local leaders, mayors, businessmen, governors and ultimately their representatives in Congress are leading the way to create what could be the first new long-distance passenger rail service in the U.S. in more than half a century — not in the Midwest, not in the Northeast, but down in the deep South.

httpwww.southernrailcommission.org/gulf-coast-rail/

The route the inspection train will be taking this week from New Orleans to Jacksonville.

It’s the product of an amazing amount of work by the Southern Rail Commission, a Congressionally established tri-state rail compact with members appointed by the governors of Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi. SRC has been hard at work bringing together local mayors along the line and building support amongst business leaders in the region. (Note: Transportation for America serves in an official capacity as policy advisors for SRC. -Ed.)

These efforts were heartily supported early on by a conservative governor in Mississippi and ultimately advanced in a key way by a bipartisan collection of congressional representatives from the region (Senators Roger Wicker and Thad Cochran of Mississippi, and Senator Bill Nelson and Representative Corrine Brown of Florida) and far beyond (Senator Cory Booker of NJ) in 2015 with the FAST Act surface transportation law.

While the FAST Act overall was a missed opportunity, it did for the first time ever also include passenger rail policy, including a provision that created a new working group to study exactly how to restore Gulf Coast passenger rail service. The omnibus budget bill passed in late 2015 provided the funding to start the working group. Led by Administrator Sara Feinberg of the Federal Railroad Administration, the working group held its kickoff meeting in New Orleans Tuesday where Feinberg encouraged the group to think bigger than just restoring service to the region, but to also consider how to build a system ready for the region’s future population and economic growth. 

The first meeting of the Gulf Coast passenger rail working group on 2/16/16, with FRA Administrator Sara Feinberg at the center. Photo by Mayor Knox Ross.

The first meeting of the Gulf Coast passenger rail working group on 2/16/16, with FRA Administrator Sara Feinberg at the center. Photo by Mayor Knox Ross.

The Amtrak planning meeting for Gulf Coast passenger rail on 2/17/16. Photo by Mayor Knox Ross.

The Amtrak planning meeting on Gulf Coast passenger rail on Wednesday, 2/17/16. Photo by Mayor Knox Ross.

A few of us from Transportation for America will be riding on the inspection train on Thursday and Friday this week, and we’ll be writing a few posts, posting photos, and talking to some of the mayors of cities from Louisiana to Florida along the line on the train about why they’re all in on passenger rail helping them reach their economic development goals.

For a taste of what we’re expecting to see, John Sharp with AL.com has some ideas:

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.

Follow along with us at @t4america and with the hashtag #YallAboard all this week on Twitter. We’ll also be posting photos directly to our Flickr account, and likely Facebook as well. Stay tuned!

Update: Find links to all of our posts and photos from the trip as well as a short video we produced on the trip here in this short recap post.