(Source: Jalopnik, April 10, 2022)
Amtrak is hoping to restore passenger rail service between Mobile, Alabama and New Orleans, Louisiana. The federally-owned company operated on the route until it discontinued operations after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Though, Amtrak doesn’t own most of the track that would be used. CSX and Norfolk Southern, the freight railroads that control most of the route, don’t want to allow passenger services on the track despite being legally obligated to do so. Last week, Amtrak used Twitch, the live streaming platform, to fight the freight services’ claims that passenger service on the track would cause “a near-catastrophic meltdown of freight operations” without infrastructure upgrades. The upgrades would cost Amtrak over $400 million. Amtrak has set up a camera along the track in Bay St. Louis to monitor if the route is as busy as CSX and Norfolk Southern claims while broadcasting the feed online.
Full story: Jalopnik