(The Associated Press circulated the following article by Kaija Wilkinson on December 3.)
MOBILE, Ala. — Despite pleas from at least two rail passenger advocacy groups, Amtrak has made no move to reinstate some form of the Sunset Limited service east of New Orleans, though the company says it has not ruled out the possibility of restoring passenger service to Mobile.
Meanwhile, Amtrak has implemented indirect service from Mobile via its Thruway Motor Coach Connection, where passengers take a Greyhound bus leaving Mobile at 7 a.m. bound for Jackson, Miss., where they may board an Amtrak train and arrive in Memphis that night or in Chicago the next morning. Tickets must be purchased separately through Greyhound and Amtrak.
“We continue to discuss restoration of a direct rail connection,” Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari of Chicago told the Press-Register last week.
Besides destroying miles of rail along the Gulf Coast, Hurricane Katrina disabled train stations such as those in Mobile and Gulfport, Miss. The rails, which belong to CSX Corp., have since been repaired at a cost of about $250 million.
CSX has sold the Mobile riverfront property that housed Amtrak’s station, and a developer plans a condominium and retail complex on the site. Plans for the complex include a new Amtrak station.
Mortimore Kelly, president of the Louisiana Association of Railroad Passengers, one of the groups pushing for the return of the passenger service linking New Orleans to Mobile, said he believes the devastating storm was an excuse for Amtrak to discontinue an unprofitable line. Amtrak actually discontinued the service a few days before Katrina hit.
“None of our lines fit the definition of ‘profitable’ in accounting terms,” said Magliari.
According to Press-Register reports, the Sunset Limited was both unprofitable and unpopular, with about 1,600 passengers traveling to or from Mobile on it in 2004, its last full year of operation.
In contrast, the Birmingham station sees more than 30,000 passengers each year.
But Amtrak maintains it hasn’t ruled out the return of passenger service for Mobile, noting that an Amtrak station is still part of the condo-retail plan. Magliari said it would be possible for Amtrak to use a temporary facility if it opts to bring the service back before the waterfront development is ready.
Magliari said Amtrak is in talks with the Southern Rapid Rail Transit Commission about implementing various passenger services, including the Sunset Limited. The transit commission, which has members from Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi, promotes and finds funding for passenger rail service.
The Sunset line once ran from Orlando to Los Angeles, making stops in Mobile, Gulfport and New Orleans. In 1993, a derailment occurred near Mobile in which 47 people died. It was Amtrak’s worst disaster.
Both Kelly’s group and the transit commission have penned resolutions, the Louisiana group in conjunction with the New Orleans City Council, beseeching Amtrak to bring passenger service back.
The City Council resolution focuses on the economic boost the Sunset, specifically, would give to the hurricane-ravaged coast.
“That’s not something Amtrak would necessarily recognize,” said Kelly. “The primary ridership was, and would be, between New Orleans and Gulfport and Mobile, not all the way from New Orleans to Orlando.”
“We’re talking about working with (Mississippi Coast) casinos to do promotions,” said Kelly.
The transit commission resolution, meanwhile, urges Amtrak to develop “a detailed corridor investment and implementation plan,” and vows to work with Amtrak to pursue federal, state and local funding for operational and infrastructure costs.
To improve the tri-state rail system, the group is asking for just under $22 million in federal funding, which would have to be matched by the three states, said Elizabeth Sanders, the commission’s newest board member, who was appointed earlier this year. Sanders is also executive director of the Downtown Mobile Alliance.
Getting states to match the funds is usually the hard part, she said. There are other potential impediments as well.
A controversial $700 million plan backed by Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour and the state’s powerful Senate delegation to pay CSX to abandon its rail line along the coast is not dead, said a spokesman in U.S. Sen. Trent Lott’s office.
Lott’s office said that there have been no new developments since Congress failed to fund the proposal earlier this year. The plan would have created a highway along the rail corridor.
Mobile business leaders had feared the impact on the local economy if the rail link to the west disappeared.
The transit commission’s Sanders said “America in general needs to be serious about providing the opportunity to travel by rail.” As a major city in the region, Mobile should have direct service, she said.
Sanders said even if improvements that would enhance the train’s appeal to business travelers are not made, the line could still serve leisure travelers.