Gulf Coast Service Expected to Start in 2023

Amtrak’s proposed service along the Gulf Coast is expected to launch next year although no date has been set.

News reports indicated the details of an agreement between Amtrak and its host railroads that will pave the way for the twice-daily service to begin remain confidential.

What is known is that Amtrak will pay for the creation of a station in Mobile, Alabama, the eastern terminus of the route. CSX is expected to pay to build a station track in Mobile so passenger trains are not blocking traffic on the mainline.

Amtrak wants to operate between New Orleans and Mobile on a route once used by the tri-weekly Sunset Limited.

The route will use tracks of Norfolk Southern and CSX with most of the route being on track of the latter. It is not yet clear if Amtrak plans to operate one a day or twice a day when it begins service next year between New Orleans and Mobile.

In a related development, the Southern Rail Commission is seeking a $179 million federal grant that would pay for part of the instructure work needed for the New Orleans-Mobile route to host passenger service.

The funds would come from the Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvement fund.

CSX is expected to pay almost $10 million toward matching the grant while the Alabama State Port Authority will contribute $750,000 and Amtrak will pay $6 million.

Grant funds will be used to pay for infrastructure work in 12 areas and include new switches and turnovers, siding extensions, crossovers, and station, yard, and crossing work.

That work is expected to take until 2026 to complete but Amtrak expects to be able to operate on the route during that time.

Once the infrastructure work is completed, the travel time between New Orleans and Mobile is expected to be 2 hours, 23 minutes.

STB Grants Additional Mediation in Gulf Coast Case

The U.S. Surface Transportation Board has agreed to give the parties in the Gulf Coast case additional time in mediation.

The STB granted the request by Amtrak, CSX, Norfolk Southern and the Alabama State Port Authority to engage in mediation for another month.

The agency had been set to hold hearings on the case in mid-November and issue a decision by early December.

In its order, the STB said it still plans to hold the hearings as scheduled unless it is notified by the parties by Nov. 10 that they want the hearings to be delayed or cancelled.

The parties would need to show the Board that substantial progress has been made in reaching a settlement in the dispute.

Amtrak is seeking an STB order allowing it to use CSX and Norfolk Southern tracks to launch twice-daily new passenger service between New Orleans and Mobile, Alabama.

The two host railroads have demanded what Amtrak considers an exorbitant level of infrastructure improvements before they will agree to host the trains.

The freight carriers have said Amtrak service would disrupt their freight operations without those improvements, an assertion that Amtrak denies.

If the hearings are not held as planned but no settlement is reached, the STB said it would conduct the hearings on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1.

The STB held 11 days of hearings in the case earlier this year.

Parties Want More Time for Mediation in Gulf Coast Case

The soap opera sage along the Gulf Coast added another chapter this week when the parties to the case before the U.S. Surface Transportation Board asked for another month of mediation.

The action followed last week’s STB action in setting hearing dates for the case, which involves Amtrak seeking an STB order to host railroads CSX and Norfolk Southern to allow two daily roundtrips between New Orleans and Mobile, Alabama.

The Mobile service proposal has languished for years, largely due to host railroad demands for multi-million infrastructure improvements that Amtrak has balked at providing.

In recent months the parties in the dispute, which also includes the Alabama State Port Authority, have argued over how Amtrak service would affect freight service on the route.

Amtrak and the host railroads have engaged in STB-sponsored mediation before, but failed to reach an agreement to resolve the dispute.

The STB said last week that it could vote as early as Dec. 7 on resolving the dispute.

But Amtrak, CSX, NS and the port authority want the STB hearings to be delayed while mediation continues. They asked that regulators to stay proceedings in the case until Dec. 1.

The STB had set hearings for Nov. 17-18. However, the parties in the dispute said it would be difficult to conduct mediation and attend those hearings at the same time.

The STB has indicated that its preference is for the parties to settle their differences among themselves rather than have the Board decree a resolution.

STB Sets Agenda for Gulf Coast Hearings

Federal regulators have issued an order to the parties involved in the Gulf Coast passenger case to be prepared to address certain specific issues during public hearings that begin on April 4.

U.S. Surface Transportation  Board Chairman Martin J. Oberman laid out those issues in a letter sent to the direct parties in the case, Amtrak, CSX, Norfolk Southern, and the Alabama State Port Authority.

Amtrak is seeking an STB order to CSX and Norfolk Southern allowing it to use their track for proposed new passenger service between New Orleans and Mobile, Alabama.

The port authority was allowed to intervene in the case after it contended that Amtrak operations could hinder freight service to the Port of Mobile.

In part, the STB wants the parties to address the operation of drawbridges on the mostly CSX route, which has not hosted Amtrak since August 2005.

Operation of bridges has become an issue because CSX contends that a traffic modeling study it conducted shows the bridges must be opened upon demand and that would affect rail traffic on the route.

The STB has also asked the parties to address how Amtrak’s existing operating agreements with CSX and NS apply to the Gulf Coast dispute, what steps have been taken pursuant to those agreements, and any additional steps under those agreements that are considered for implementation by the parties.

Although Amtrak submitted as evidence those operating agreements, they are not part of the record in the case that is open to public view.

Regulators also have asked the parties to address whether they can “prescribe reasonable terms and compensation” if they determine that Amtrak operations would impose unreasonable burdens on freight operations.

A similar question the Board asked is whether it can order a host railroad to allow Amtrak operations subject to the construction of additional infrastructure as determined by regulators and can regulators determine which party must pay for such work.

The STB order can be found at https://dcms-external.s3.amazonaws.com/DCMS_External_PROD/1647268205256/51157.pdf

CSX, NS Seek Dismissal of Amtrak STB Case Over Gulf Coast Service

CSX and Norfolk Southern have asked the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to dismiss Amtrak’s petition asking regulators to force the two Class 1 railroads to allow operation of new Gulf Coast passenger service next year.

The host railroads said Amtrak’s complaint is not “ripe” because they have not refused Amtrak’s proposed service.

In a filing, the two railroads said they want Amtrak to live up to the commitments it made to complete a joint rail traffic controller modeling study to determine the infrastructure that will be required to support the service Amtrak wants to implement.

Amtrak has proposed operating two daily roundtrips between New Orleans and Mobile, Alabama.

The filing by NS and CSX also contends that Amtrak has not submitted an environmental and historic report with its STB petition, and that Congress did not give Amtrak any cause of action that could support its demand for an “interim order” allowing it to enter other railroads’ lines to perform preparations for new service before the STB decides whether the new service will be allowed.

Furthermore, the host railroads argued that Amtrak lacks important state support to ensure success of the proposed service.

At the center of the dispute is Amtrak’s withdrawing from a traffic study the host railroads contend must be completed before they will discuss what infrastructure improvements are needed to accommodate passenger service.

For its part, Amtrak contends the railroads hindered completion of the study by changing its parameters as it was being conducted.

The passenger carrier at the time it filed its request with the STB in February said it was seeking to force NS and CSX to demonstrate why they cannot host the proposed service.

In statement released after the host railroads asked the STB to dismiss the case, Amtrak said the matter is being considered by regulators and the intercity passenger carrier “fully anticipate the STB’s process will be both transparent and data driven. We will respond to all filings through that docket.”

At the time that Amtrak went to the STB, an Amtrak spokesman indicated that discussions about instituting the service have been ongoing for five years with no sign of a conclusion in sight.

Amtrak contends that federal law gives it a right of access to the host railroads for the proposed Mobile service.

In the past week, the STB case has also drawn the attention of various Alabama political officials.

Gov. Kay Ivey called for completion of the traffic study, which she said it critical for protecting the economic interests of the Port of Mobile.

Ivey said she wants the STB to order Amtrak to complete the traffic study before considering Amtrak’s application.

The governor’s statement to the STB also said, “Alabama has withheld funding for new Gulf Coast passenger service because of our concern that any economic benefit from new passenger rail service will be outweighed by the potential harm to freight rail service based on the current infrastructure. I am particularly concerned about the impact to the Port of Mobile. . .”

Mobile Port Authority CEO John C. Driscoll also has asked the STB to order Amtrak to complete the traffic study.

Port Officials have long expressed concern that passenger operations will adversely affect CSX freight service to the port.

Driscoll said in his statement that the port authority “does not oppose passenger rail into the City of Mobile, but we do have deep concerns regarding Amtrak’s impact on servicing current freight rail as well as servicing future freight capacity demand in the CSX corridor.”

Until August 2005 Amtrak served Mobile with its tri-weekly Sunset Limited, which operated along the Gulf Coast between New Orleans and Jacksonville, Florida.

Operation of Nos. 1 and 2 east of New Orleans was suspended after the route was damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

CSX, NS Want Capacity Study Completed on Gulf Coast Service

In letters sent to the Alabama State Port Authority, CSX and Norfolk Southern have outlined their objections to Amtrak’s stated intent to begin service in 2022 between New Orleans and Mobile, Alabama.

CSX Assistant Vice President of Passenger Operations Andy Daly said a modeling study of how Amtrak operations would affect CSX freight service needs to be completed before the Class 1 railroad will discuss infrastructure needs for passenger service.

His letter does not address the question of whether CSX would be willing to talk with Amtrak without completion of the modeling studies.

Daly said in his letter that three separate modeling studies have been conducted since 2016, “but none have modeled this new twice-daily roundtrip between New Orleans and Mobile.”

Those studies anticipated two daily roundtrips between New Orleans and Mobile with one of them continuing eastward to Orlando, Florida.

NS would host just five miles of the 140-mile route but also insisted that the traffic modeling study be completed.

The study in question uses the Rail Traffic Controller software.

During a recently meeting of the Southern Rail Commission, Amtrak Senior Director of Host Railroads Jim Blair said the carrier was working on the RTC study but encountered numerous delays that have prevented the study from being completed last year as expected.

He said the study was supposed to take seven months “but into December [2020] we weren’t progressing. Then in January, the consultant came back to us and said that much of the work that had been done was not usable because there was a modification to the software.

“That was actually implemented in February of this year, and that made much of the prior work unusable.”

Blair said Amtrak management felt that despite spending money and effort it wasn’t getting any closer to being able to launch the Mobile service and the agreement to use the RTC program then expired.

Alternatively, Amtrak decided to seek the views of CSX and NS management as to what it would take to enable the service to begin in 2022.

The Alabama port authority has long opposed the Amtrak service for fear that it will disrupt rail service at the port of Mobile. It, too, has said it wants the RTC study to be completed.

Another unresolved issue is the location of a permanent Mobile station. One proposal has called for having the trains serve a location at Brookley Airport rather than in downtown Mobile.

In the meantime, Amtrak has said it is seeking Federal Railroad Administration approval to begin spending its own money on rebuilding station facilities between New Orleans and Mobile.

In Mobile that would include rehabilitating the station downtown once used by Amtrak’s Sunset Limited when it served the city.

The Sunset Limited ceased operating east of New Orleans in August in the wake of damage to the route and stations facilities caused by Hurricane Katrina.

Some observers believe that the unresolved issues over the Mobile route will wind up before the U.S. Surface Transportation Board.

STB Chairman Martin Oberman, speking to a Chicago-based Environmental Law and Policy Center webinar, said that if a freight railroad denies Amtrak access to their tracks, federal law “make[s] it clear we have the power to order such access and the terms of it.”

Mobile Moving Ahead With Station Plans

Although it not a certainty that Amtrak service east of New Orleans will be restored, officials in Mobile, Alabama, are pressing ahead with plans to build a new train station.

The city received a $139,500 federal grant in 2016 to be used toward establishing the station.

Officials have discussed putting it downtown near Cooper Riverside Park, the Arthur R. Outlaw Mobile Convention Center and the GulfQuest maritime museum.

The city recently issues a request for qualifications for consultants to provide planning and architectural design work for the station. Applications are due by April 20.

Not everyone in Mobile is on board with the idea of restoring Amtrak service that was lost in August 2005 after Hurricane Katrina damaged the route of the Sunset Limited east of New Orleans.

Jimmy Lyons, head of the Alabama State Port Authority doubts that getting Amtrak back will benefit the city that much.

Instead, he argues that it will encourage more people to leave Mobile to visit New Orleans and Mississippi casinos rather than drawing visitors from elsewhere to Mobile.

“People aren’t going to get on a train and ride to Mobile when you have the museums, zoos and aquariums in New Orleans,” he said. “The residents of New Orleans, when they come to Alabama, they go to the beach. Taking the train isn’t a good option of going to the beach. We would lose business here. I don’t see it as a real win for Mobile.”

Lyons is also worried that a passenger train would interfere with CSX freight service to the port of Mobile.

“We are highly dependent on that CSX rail line that runs through the port and underneath the Convention Center,” Lyons said. “We run, at a minimum, seven-eight trains a day over that line. On heavy days, when we have a lot of coal traffic, we could be up to 12-15 times.”

Lyons’ point of view is at odds with that of the Southern Rail Commission, which is pressing states on the route of the train to provide funding to match federal grant money that is available in the current federal budget for restoration of intercity passenger rail service where it has been lost.