Amtrak breaks ground on new Mobile train station

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Federal Railroad Administrator Amit Bose were among government and Amtrak officials on hand yesterday to help the city of Mobile, Alabama, break ground on a new train station that will serve riders on Amtrak's future Gulf Coast service.

City officials organized the ceremony for the station, which will be part of Amtrak's Gulf Coast service between Mobile and New Orleans. The construction site is next to the Mobile Convention Center.

"We’ve broken ground on the Gulf Coast Rail project, restoring Amtrak service between New Orleans and Mobile for the first time since 2005," Buttigieg said in a post on X. "With funding from infrastructure law, this project will reconnect these two communities and provide a vital transportation link once again."

Also attending the ceremony were Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson and Amtrak President Roger Harris.

Amtrak service along the coast was suspended after Hurricane Katrina destroyed rail infrastructure there in 2005. The restored service and new station is being funded in part with federal dollars from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021. 

A start date for the service has yet to be announced. The effort to restore Amtrak's two proposed daily round trips between Mobile and New Orleans has faced multiple challenges, including a dispute between Amtrak and the two Class Is (CSX and Norfolk Southern Railway) whose track would host Amtrak trains on the line.

Additionally, the Port of Mobile and other regional economic interests had claimed that passenger-rail service would interfere with freight-rail traffic in the region. The disputes were taken up by the Surface Transportation Board, starting in March 2021, when Amtrak petitioned the board to force CSX and NS to allow the passenger railroad to run trains on the Class Is’ track.

To learn more, click here to read an article in Progressive Railroading's RailPrime.