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5/10/2024
The Board of Zoning Adjustment in Mobile, Alabama, has approved Amtrak’s special request for a temporary platform that would lead to restoration of passenger-rail service along the Gulf Coast.
Amtrak now can build a 1,400-square-foot temporary platform on Water Street near Cooper Riverside Park in Mobile. The platform is needed to restore Amtrak service to the region for the first time since Hurricane Katrina destroyed rail infrastructure along the Gulf Coast in 2005.
The platform project also includes a layover track to clear the mainline for CSX trains. CSX also will be responsible for building the track and bidding out the contract for the platform, Fox 10 TV reported. Mobile is the only stop on the Amtrak route between Mobile and New Orleans.
The Mobile zoning board’s approval of the platform request was a necessary step in Amtrak’s efforts to restore the region's passenger-rail service.
Meanwhile, Amtrak, CSX, Norfolk Southern Railway, the Alabama State Port Authority and the Terminal Railway Alabama State Docks provided a joint status report to the Surface Transportation Board on the parties’ progress in restoring the Gulf Coast rail service.
At a Feb. 14 hearing on when the service might begin, STB members expressed frustration at the slow pace of launching the service. They ordered the parties to provide the status report, which can be downloaded here.