Amtrak has asked the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to order two freight railroads to open their tracks to passenger trains running between Mobile and New Orleans, pressing forward with a long-stalled plan even as some Mobile City Council members say the effort has run out of road.
The national passenger rail carrier filed its petition with the federal board, which regulates freight rail disputes, asking regulators to require CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Railway to either provide access for two daily round-trip passenger trains or publicly justify why they cannot. Amtrak has requested expedited consideration in hopes of starting service on or about Jan. 1, 2022.
Under Surface Transportation Board procedure, the freight carriers would need to demonstrate to regulators that hosting the passenger trains isn’t feasible, rather than simply declining without explanation. Amtrak has said it holds a federal statutory right to operate over the freight lines and points to roughly $66 million in already-approved infrastructure funding intended to support the new service.
Dennis Newman, Amtrak’s executive vice president for planning and asset development, said in a statement that years of negotiations with the freight railroads had failed to produce an agreement for what he described as two short, quick round trips a day. He said it was time for the federal board to step in and protect Amtrak’s right to use the tracks.
Knox Ross, a Southern Rail Commission member from Mississippi, said a 2017 federally directed study found the corridor needed about $66 million in infrastructure upgrades before passenger service could safely return, and said that money is now secured. Ross said local communities along the route have grown frustrated after years of studies and delays, and he’s hopeful a transparent Surface Transportation Board process can resolve the standoff so trains can start running.
John Robert Smith, chairman of the advocacy group Transportation for America and a former Amtrak board chairman, said the federal board is now the only realistic path for returning passenger service to the Gulf Coast. He said freight railroads nationally have often simply refused proposed passenger routes despite Amtrak’s legal right to operate on them, and that slow board rulings, driven by limited capacity, tend to benefit whichever side wants to block new service.
Before Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005, Amtrak ran three separate services through the Gulf Coast region, including two daily trains between the same city pairs now being proposed and the tri-weekly Sunset Limited. That storm washed away large stretches of CSX track, and the Sunset Limited’s New Orleans-to-Florida segment was never restored. CSX rebuilt its line in 2006, and residents and state and local officials have pushed for restored passenger service ever since.
Rail industry data cited in Amtrak’s filing indicates the corridor’s freight traffic is far below capacity to absorb the new passenger trains. Under the proposed schedule, a train would leave both Mobile and New Orleans each morning and each afternoon, passing each other in Mississippi, where about $45 million in separate track improvements are planned and funded. In Mobile, the two departures would be spaced roughly 12 hours apart, with arrivals about 10 hours apart.
The federal filing lands amid new uncertainty over Mobile’s own financial commitment to the project. The City Council previously voted to fund the city’s roughly $3 million share of a statewide match required to help launch the service, a move Gov. Kay Ivey had publicly opposed. But several council members have more recently raised concerns that the funding was approved on the assumption a rail impact modeling study would be completed — and that study now appears to be abandoned.
Councilman Joel Daves said the council’s commitment was conditional on two things: mitigating any impacts of the new passenger trains and completing the modeling study. With Amtrak declining to finish that study, he said, he considers the funding commitment void.
“The only commitment we’ve made was contingent on two items: mitigation of the impacts and the modeling study,” Daves said. “As far as I’m concerned it’s dead. I find it absolutely incredible that Amtrak would not complete the impact study.”
Councilman John Williams agreed the incomplete study is a problem, though he left more room for the funding commitment to survive. Williams said any change to the contingency would need to come with a recommendation from Mayor Sandy Stimpson, and that without the mayor’s sign-off, he would be among at least three council votes against continuing the funding. Five affirmative votes would be needed to change the council’s prior commitment.
“I just want people to do what they say they’re going to do,” Williams said.
Stimpson’s office declined to state a position on the passenger rail funding, citing a need for more information. The mayor has previously supported Amtrak’s return to Mobile but appeared to grow more cautious once it became clear the modeling study would not be finished.
The disagreement spilled into the Mobile City Council’s regular meeting Tuesday, March 23, when Councilman Fred Richardson asked Stimpson directly about his support for the passenger service and pressed fellow council members to back a resolution supporting Amtrak’s position. Stimpson responded that he intended to wait for the freight carriers and Amtrak to resolve their dispute before weighing in further. Richardson argued the freight rail disagreement was not the council’s concern.
Daves pushed back on Richardson’s resolution, saying he would not support it and describing the freight railroads and the Port of Mobile as the leading drivers of the local economy. Williams also cut in during the exchange, telling Richardson the Amtrak matter was out of order because it was not on the meeting’s official agenda.
Both CSX and Norfolk Southern have previously said they support Amtrak’s return to the corridor in principle, but each offered only limited comment on the new federal filing, citing the case’s status as pending litigation before the Surface Transportation Board.
CSX spokesperson Cindy Schild placed the blame for the unfinished study on Amtrak. “Amtrak elected to abandon the long-standing practice of completing an impact study when the introduction of new passenger service is proposed,” she said. “Now that this matter is before the Surface Transportation Board, CSX has no further comment.”
Norfolk Southern likewise characterized the Surface Transportation Board filing as litigation and declined to offer additional comment.