AASHTO Journal - USDOT Celebrates Gulf Coast Passenger Rail Restoration

The U.S. Department of Transportation hosted a groundbreaking event this week for the Gulf Coast Corridor Improvement project, which will restore passenger rail service along the Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi coastlines for the first time since Hurricane Katrina devastated the region in 2005.

[Above photo via USDOT]

The Federal Railroad Administration provided a $178 million grant to Amtrak for this project as part of more than $1.4 billion awarded to 70 railroad improvement projects in 35 states and Washington, D.C., via its Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements or CRISI program in September 2023.

Amtrak is making several track and signal-related improvements, grade crossing upgrades, and station improvements to add two new daily round trips between New Orleans and Mobile, AL as part of this endeavor. While expanding passenger service, the project will also help maintain reliable freight operations along a line used by CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Railway and benefit the Port of Mobile.

Sec. Buttigieg at left. Photo via USDOT.

Pete Buttigieg, USDOT secretary, headlined the groundbreaking event – accompanied by Sandy Stimpson, mayor of Mobile, FRA Administrator Amit Bose and representatives from Amtrak, the Southern Rail Commission, and other local leaders.

“This was a project that was a long time coming – about 20 years in the making,” Buttigieg said in his remarks at the groundbreaking. “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.”

He noted that the project will upgrade tracks and signals to help minimize delays, as well as make train station improvements to provide a “comfortable place” for passengers to wait while shielding them from the elements. New grade crossings will make it safer for vehicles to cross where roads intersect with those train tracks, Buttigieg added.

“And of course, most exciting for all, there will soon be two new roundtrips a day running between Mobile and New Orleans,” he said.

“Once this project is complete, once that Gulf Coast Rail Line is back up and running, those twice daily roundtrips will mean a reliable, efficient, affordable way to travel for people here in Alabama, in Mississippi, and in Louisiana,” Buttigieg noted. “And we know the potential for economic development that this will bring – something we have seen demonstrated time and again along passenger rail lines around the U.S. and around the world. Developers see the value in creating new housing and commercial options in places served by the rail line, which drives a virtuous cycle of economic growth and opportunity.”