T4America's impact
Restoring Gulf Coast passenger railThanks in part to T4America’s policy expertise, advocacy, and relationship-building since 2013, an impressive coalition of local and state leaders realized their dream of bringing new and improved passenger rail service to the people of the Gulf Coast with the launch of the Mardi Gras line in August 2025 between New Orleans and Mobile. But to make that regional win possible, T4America had to help create a new national passenger rail program that is producing real progress on rail elsewhere across the country.
T4America has led the way on building and expanding passenger rail since 2013
When T4America was tapped in 2013 to help restore passenger rail service on the Gulf Coast, we knew we’d need to solve a bigger problem: The country’s rail programs, policies, and funding streams were not well calibrated to help expand service on the coast. So we set out to solve the first problem—restore passenger rail on the Gulf Coast—by creating a new, national rail program for the entire country.
Beginning in 2013, T4America led a successful multi-year effort to build new champions for the issue and enshrine a new rail program in the federal transportation law in 2015 for the first time. At a time when Congress was consolidating and shrinking the federal transportation program, T4America helped create two brand-new rail programs. These programs have helped support the 2025 launch of the Gulf Coast’s long-awaited Mardi Gras service, but they are also helping to support the expansion of passenger rail around the country. And T4America’s continued advocacy led to the creation of two more new rail programs in the 2021 infrastructure law.
This expansive feature tells the full story of how Transportation for America partnered with the Southern Rail Commission and members of Congress to bring passenger rail back to the Gulf Coast. You can scroll through the entire story on this page, or use these buttons to jump to specific sections.
[T4America and SRC have] absolutely been wonderful—and we’ve relied on them. We’ve taken their advice. They’ve been steadfast, and they’re among the small group of people, like my staff and my team, who said, “We’re just not going to give up until we get this done.”
Roger Wicker
U.S. Senator, Mississippi
1982 - 2013
Hurricane Katrina wipes out mediocre passenger rail and local advocates struggle to restore service
Passenger rail service existed along the Gulf Coast from 1993 to August 2005, but service consisted of just three trains per week on Amtrak’s Sunset Limited route stretching from Los Angeles to Orlando. Ridership wasn’t great—trains stopped in Gulf Coast cities in the middle of the night, if they even arrived on time, which was rare due to freight-related delays along the almost incomprehensibly long route…until Hurricane Katrina wipes out passenger and freight service in August 2005.
June 1982 - February 1993
The Southern Rail Commission is formed, no passenger service exists
Congress authorizes the creation of an interstate rail compact between Mississippi and Louisiana “to study the feasibility of rapid rail transit service between the two States.” The Southern Rail Commission (SRC)—the beating heart of this two-decades-long campaign to restore service—is subsequently created by those state legislatures. Alabama joins later due to the language allowing contiguous states to join. The SRC studies several options for rail, but no passenger rail serves the Gulf Coast Corridor during this time.
- Read more: What happened to US passenger rail? The American railroad system is merely a shadow of its former self. How did the United States’ passenger rail network degrade to the system we have today?
April 1993
New, mediocre rail service comes to the Gulf Coast
The incredibly long Sunset Limited (originating in Los Angeles) extends to Jacksonville, FL, resulting in the longest rail line in the country. New Orleans and the Gulf Coast cities see just three trains per week, scheduled to stop in the overnight AM hours—though rarely arriving on time, plagued by delays from sharing space with freight railroads. Ridership matches the quality of the service.
August 2005 - February 2006
Hurricane Katrina and the loss of passenger rail
On August 29, 2005, a historic storm severely damages or destroys about 200 miles of track east of New Orleans, ending passenger rail service for nearly 20 years. The record-breaking storm kills more than 1,300 people and exacts some of the worst structural damage in the cities of the Mississippi Gulf Coast. CSX, the freight railroad company that owns the trackage, begins repairing and rebuilding their track immediately, restoring full freight operations by February 2006, but passenger rail service never returns.
- Read more: Why does Amtrak run on track owned by freight railroads? Learn more about the various deals that gave land for tracks to freight companies in exchange for carrying passengers.
2006 to 2013
Toil and tears, but few rewards
Without a clear path forward, no strong champions in Congress, and an existential fight for Amtrak’s life, especially during the end of the Bush administration years, this period is marked by a handful of dead ends. Amtrak submits a Gulf Coast Service Plan report to Congress, the SRC hosts a big “bring back Amtrak” event in Florida, and hosts a summit in Mobile, AL. But little progress is made—until 2013.
April 2013
A new strategic plan leads to hiring T4America
The SRC makes a renewed commitment, doubling down on their unique existence as a congressionally chartered entity and creating a new strategic plan and branding. They start organizing mayors along the route to send letters to Congress encouraging them to restore service, and holding public forums to spotlight the issue. Up next? Finding a partner to lead their federal and state efforts, which leads them to Transportation for America.
2013-2015
T4America provides the roadmap for restoration and notches major wins
In 2013, the Southern Rail Commission reached out to T4America Chair John Robert Smith—the former mayor of Meridian, MS, and a former Amtrak board chair—to create and implement a federal strategy for restoring passenger rail service on the Gulf Coast. The campaign picks up major momentum with numerous historic wins over the next two years. The team builds a vital relationship with Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS), who champions the project, and notches major wins in Congress when Senator Wicker helps create brand new rail programs and funding streams in 2015.
It's hard to overstate how essential Transportation for America has been to our successful effort to bring passenger rail back to our people of the Gulf Coast. They formed a strategy, helped us navigate a thorny path through DC, provided valuable advice and support every step of the way, and we never would have made it here without hiring John Robert Smith and his team back in 2013. His visionary leadership and T4America's passion for people and places like the Gulf Coast are unmatched, and we look forward to working with them to expand passenger rail throughout the South.
John Spain
Southern Rail Commission
Fall 2013
T4America is brought on board to make it happen
Transportation for America is hired by the Southern Rail Commission to develop a federal strategy to establish the policy and funding necessary to make new passenger rail service possible.
2014
Setting up a major win in the FAST Act
After striking out on a TIGER grant application, which would have provided more than a million dollars to support major planning efforts for restoring passenger rail, the T4America team starts to think much bigger than one-off grants, turning all eyes toward Congress and especially the overdue multi-year transportation reauthorization in the works in 2014 and 2015.
December 4, 2015
Historic wins for passenger rail in the five-year transportation law
With T4America leading a two-year marathon sprint of advocacy, relationship-building, and policy development, passenger rail is included in the federal surface transportation program for the very first time alongside highways and transit. Senate Commerce Committee Chair Roger Wicker leads the bipartisan effort in the Senate (supported by Sen. Cory Booker) to include rail in the FAST Act, the 2015 five-year transportation law, which results in the creation of two brand new programs: the Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) to build capital infrastructure, and the Restoration and Enhancement (R&E) grants to provide start-up operational support for new service.
These two programs won by T4America become the essential building blocks to support other serious efforts to expand passenger rail across the country.
When we were brought on in 2013, we knew the federal transportation program was not calibrated to create new service, and there was real apprehension in Congress about project-level spending (earmarks). So our strategy was to build up the entire federal rail program and create new programs and funding streams for passenger rail, rather than hoping for one-off grant funding only to support the Gulf Coast. It was an ambitious strategy, but those 2015 wins became the foundation for the historic $102 billion provided for rail in the 2021 infrastructure law.
Mayor John Robert Smith
Senior Policy Advisor, T4America
February 2016: The inspection train
The people of the Gulf Coast tell Congress: “Y'all Aboard”
It’s hard to overstate the significance of this two-day event in 2016. The Gulf Coast inspection train, run by Amtrak in partnership with SRC, tours the potential route and examines the CSX tracks over two days in February 2016. The train is met by boisterous, enormous crowds in cities up and down the coast. It was the product of years of work by local residents and elected leaders at almost all levels. It provides a tangible sign that progress was being made and sent a clear message to their congressional leaders: bring passenger rail service back to the coast.
The first passenger train in 11 years sends a powerful message
Thousands of residents showed up and showed out to support bringing passenger rail back to the Gulf Coast. Elected officials from cities along the route, the states, and members of Congress rode the train and disembarked to speak at a handful of brief whistle stops along the way. The VIPs were met by thousands of residents, and while the reception was boisterous in every city, no one who was on the train in Bay St. Louis that day will ever forget the sights—or sounds.
Watch:
“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.”
– Steve Davis, T4America Director, writing about the arrival of the train into Bay St. Louis for t4america.org
Read dispatches from the inspection train:
All the cities along this route see the economic development potential of the train. 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.
Knox Ross
Southern Rail Commission
The view from the train
2016-2021
The plan gains legitimacy—and funding
After the historic victory of getting passenger rail included in a five-year transportation law for the first time, T4America gets to work to capitalize on the momentum for the Gulf Coast. The 2016 demonstration train supercharges the project and shows Congress the depth of the support on the coast. The team produces the first-ever applications to the newly created rail programs, which results in nearly $39 million in 2019 to upgrade the infrastructure and support the first two years of service. With real money finally rolling in, the project gains new legitimacy and credibility, leading to matching grants from Louisiana, Mississippi, and eventually Mobile, AL. Down on the coast, the Gulf Coast Working Group finalizes their report to FRA and Congress, which establishes the preferred frequency of two round-trips per day.
February 16-17, 2016
Gulf Coast Working Group meets for the first time
The 2015 FAST Act includes a small earmark to create and support a working group to study if and how passenger rail service should be reintroduced. The Gulf Coast Working Group, made up of an impressively wide spectrum of people representing freight railroads, towns and cities, Amtrak, and policy subject matter experts, meets for the first time just a few days before the inspection train leaves New Orleans. T4America helps convene and lead the conversation.
February 18-19, 2016
The inspection train is greeted by thousands along the coast
“We’ve got the top brass, we’ve got the local leaders, and we’re gonna make this work for Mississippi and for the taxpayers,” Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker tells a cheering crowd during a stop along the ride.
Watch the train greeted by the residents of Bay St. Louis, Mississippi:
February 23, 2016
The Gulf Coast carries the message directly to Congress
Immediately after the inspection train, Mayor Knox Ross of Pelahatchie, Mississippi and the Southern Rail Commission (SRC) testifies before the Senate Commerce Committee and shows the video above to members who are stunned silent by the bipartisan, booming support for rail in their towns along the coast. “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,” he said to a dais of Senators that was unusually full.
July 2017
The working group makes their recommendation: Two trains per day
Informed by the 2016 inspection train, the Gulf Coast Working Group completes their report required by Congress, identifying the preferred option as twice-daily service from New Orleans, LA, to Mobile, AL, and a future one-trip a day long-distance route to Orlando, FL. The working group’s report becomes the guiding framework for developing the service and assembling the local, state, and federal money required for making it a reality.
May 2018
Landmark economic impact studies make the case
A study from the Trent Lott Institute at the University of Southern Mississippi finds that the project would generate $282.58 million annually for Mississippi, create 45 high-wage train operating jobs in Louisiana, and generate $92 million in additional spending from only a modest 5 percent increase in visitors to Harrison County (MS). A later study in 2020 from Jacksonville State University estimates that expanding rail service in Alabama would create up to 10,800 construction jobs, generate between $6.3 million and $21.6 million in railway operations, and boost tourism spending by up to $389.2 million, supporting thousands of jobs. Read these studies and more here.
May 2019 - August 2019
The project wins its most substantial funding
Through multiple awards in 2019, the SRC receives nearly $39 million in federal funds under FRA administrator Ronald Batory to complete the necessary major infrastructure and capital improvements and support operating expenses for the first and second years of service. This gives the project major momentum and legitimacy, and leads to $1.4 million in matching funds from the states of Louisiana and Mississippi.
February - March 2020
The final city gets on board: Mobile City Council approves their funding
The City of Mobile, AL finally does their part to bring the train all the way into the city, approving a key resolution and allocating the local matching funding required to apply for the federal grant to support the cost of operating the line in Alabama.
The 2021 infrastructure law expands the rail program
Through the help of Senator Wicker and his staff in the 2021 infrastructure law, Transportation for America creates and expands the opportunities for other groups to replicate the success of the SRC and grow passenger rail connections across the nation, far beyond the Gulf Coast.
T4America helps create two more new rail programs in the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act: the Corridor Identification and Development Program (CIDP) and the Interstate Rail Compacts (IRC) Program—which is specifically designed to replicate the work of the Southern Rail Commission in other regions across the country. The IIJA also includes language to continue the existing grant programs and to focus Amtrak’s mission on serving the nation in both rural and urban areas.
Combined with the wins in 2015, the 2021 provisions will help improve and expand passenger rail in other regions across the country.
2021 to 2025
The final obstacles are the toughest to overcome
By 2021, T4America had worked with SRC to win federal, state, and local funding as well as political support from across the map. Everything seems to be lined up and ready to go, but the last few remaining obstacles turn out to be some of the most intransigent: The freight railroads try to kill the project completely. A federal mediator gets involved to determine how to balance Amtrak’s request and the rights of the freight railroads. A dispute with the Port of Mobile turns into a complicated mess in the only Alabama city on the route. The last 10 percent of any project is always the hardest part.
April 2021 - December 2022
Freight railroads try to kill the service
CSX and Norfolk Southern file a motion with the government arbitrator, the Surface Transportation Board (STB), to dismiss Amtrak’s application to restore passenger rail service to the coast. Amtrak files a petition with the STB asking to deny this motion. In their usual, slow deliberative manner, the STB tries to mediate first, eventually producing a settlement in December 2022 between Amtrak, the freight railroads, and the Port of Mobile that will allow service to return…in 2023.
- Read more: Rail barons return: How two freight railroads are trying to derail the 2021 infrastructure law’s historic investment in passenger rail.
- Read more: Groundtruthing the bad faith arguments from the freight railroads about the “massively congested” Gulf Coast corridor.
- Read more: The settlement finally reached between Amtrak, freight railroads, the Alabama State Port Authority, and Amtrak is, in T4America’s words, “a tremendous victory for the Gulf, but its impact extends beyond those states. The restoration of this service is pivotal for expanding passenger service across the nation, making good on the promise of the 2021 infrastructure law.”
September 2023
Like manna from heaven
Senator Wicker announces the award of $178 million in CRISI funding from the Federal Railroad Administration and administrator Amit Bose for the capital investments required to restore passenger rail service along the Gulf Coast, replacing the $33 million award from 2019. This marks the final federal funding required to complete the project and is the culmination of years of work by Transportation for America and the Southern Rail Commission.
August 2024
Mobile finally gets fully on board
The Mobile City Council unanimously votes to approve the funding and land use agreements with Amtrak that allow the construction of the train platform and planning for the launch of service to finally move forward.
“This is a victory not only for Mobile but for every city and small town served by this route,” said John Robert Smith, Chair of Transportation for America. “I applaud the City of Mobile for removing the final roadblock to the return of passenger rail service along the Gulf Coast. This victory will improve economic mobility, connect communities across the Deep South, and set an example for the expansion of passenger rail across the country.”
October 2024
Groundbreaking in Mobile.
SRC, Amtrak, and other partners celebrate the groundbreaking of the Mobile platform with Secretary Pete Buttigieg of the U.S. Department of Transportation.
- Read more: “It has taken a lot of lifting, and pushing, and funding, and partnership—across state lines, across party lines, across the public-private line—in order to make this happen. But now we are here celebrating the work that is going to reconnect Mobile to a larger passenger rail network, supporting these communities with those high-impact investments and long-term upgrades that they deserve. So, it is my great pleasure, on behalf of the Biden-Harris Administration and the entire U.S. Department of Transportation, to join you and to congratulate you to officially mark the groundbreaking of the restoration of the Gulf Coast Rail Line.” – Sec. Pete Buttigieg at the groundbreaking in Mobile.
January 2025
More operations money
Under FRA Administrator Amit Bose, FRA makes a final award of $21 million in Restoration and Enhancement grants to support operations of the new service.
August 2025
Ya'll aboard! The Mardi Gras service launches to the public
Just days before the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and with a name chosen by the SRC in April 2025, the Mardi Gras service begins running on August 18, 2025, providing two daily roundtrips along the Gulf Coast between New Orleans, LA and Mobile, AL. Unlike the pre-2005 Sunset Limited service, these trains depart and arrive at ideal times during daylight hours. This new service is the culmination of thousands of hours of work by hundreds of people who have labored for years to bring new and improved rail service back to the people of the Gulf Coast, and Transportation for America was honored to be a major part of making this happen.
August 2025
A celebration 20 years in the making
Passenger rail is back on the Gulf Coast! Amtrak Mardi Gras Service launches to the public on Monday, August 18. On the Saturday before the launch, T4America staff, including Senior Policy Advisor John Robert Smith, joined elected officials and leaders of this years-long effort to celebrate the return of service.
August 16, 2025
Y'all Aboard! Scenes from the inaugural ride of the Mardi Gras Service
Thank you to the many individuals whose efforts over the past 15 years made it possible to bring passenger rail back to the Gulf Coast:
Transportation for America
Nick Donohue, Russ Brooks, Joe McAndrew, Alex Beckmann, Dennis Barrett, Scott Goldstein, Andrew Justus, Rayla Bellis, Jaibin Mathew, and Mehr Mukhtar.
Special thanks to Beth Osborne, John Robert Smith, Eric Cova, and Steve Davis.
Office of Senator Roger Wicker
Ellen Beares, Alison Graab, Sebastian Paez, Julia Wood, Mallie Imbler, and Kyle Fields.