Trains, 8/7/24:
What’s next for Amtrak Gulf Coast service: Analysis
The Super Bowl will be played in New Orleans at Caesars Superdome on Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. Mardi Gras’ Fat Tuesday celebration, perhaps the biggest event in both Mobile and the Crescent City, happens to be late next year: March 4.
The race is now on to begin Amtrak Gulf Coast service by then, following the Mobile City Council’s votes Tuesday supporting that service [see “Mobile, Ala., council votes to approve …,” Trains News Wire Aug. 6, 2024].
Read the article.
Important takeaway from this is that the agreement allowing the 2 daily round trips between New Orleans and Mobile stipulates that no further extensions beyond Mobile can happen within 3 years. So... no Florida long distance train bridging the gap to Jacksonville, and no return of service along the Gulf Breeze route through Montgomery to Birmingham. And no frequency increase beyond the two trips in each direction.