Buttigieg credits infrastructure package for making Gulf Coast Amtrak a reality

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg acknowledged the resiliency of a still-evolving Amtrak project along the Gulf Coast Tuesday, while touting the Biden Administration’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure package that added millions of dollars in transportation-related funding to Mobile in recent months.

Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind., told a crowd gathered at the future site of Amtrak’s platform in Mobile that Amtrak’s Gulf Coast project was made possible thanks to the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IJJA), which has become a hallmark achievement of the Biden presidency.

“We have so much to celebrate today,” Buttigieg said to loud applause from a mostly pro-Biden crowd assembled underneath a tent for a ceremony that featured remarks from local, federal, and Amtrak officials. Buttigieg’s visit to Mobile was the first for a sitting U.S. Transportation Secretary in nine years.

“This is a vision desired across multiple administrations in Washington,” he said. “Now it’s being realized and made possible because of the historic funding that came by way of the bipartisan infrastructure law.”

Buttigieg also recognized the $550 million Bridge Investment Program grant awarded for the $3.5 billion Interstate 10 Mobile River Bridge and Bayway project in July, in what is believed to be the largest single grant ever awarded to Alabama.

“We are proud it happened under our watch,” he said.

What’s next?

No announcements were made during Buttigieg’s appearance on when the Amtrak service will begin nor was the name of the new train disclosed. There is no timetable set for the start of a twice-daily Amtrak connection between Mobile and New Orleans with four stops in coastal Mississippi, other than it is expected to restart by the spring of 2025.

“I’m asking the same question,” Buttigieg said during an interview with AL.com after the ceremony at Callaghan’s Irish Social Club in midtown Mobile. “Obviously, the timeline has to be dictated by project readiness and making sure it is squared away. I won’t get ahead of Amtrak or CSX, but it seems to be within our grasp.”

Amtrak President Roger Harris, during his remarks, did not provide any clues.

“Next year … our Amtrak Gulf Coast service will become a reality,” he said. “It would not be a reality without the support from the Biden-Harris Administration, and the bipartisan infrastructure law and part of the biggest investment in Amtrak history.”

Related content: When will the train arrive? In Mobile, a vexing question surfaces over Amtrak’s Gulf Coast return

The ceremony and Buttigieg’s visit kicks off construction work that includes a new layover track that CSX Transportation will build. The company is the main freight operator along the Gulf Coast, though Norfolk Southern operates portions of the line in Louisiana.

The 3,000-foot-long track is being added so passenger trains do not impact freight operations at the Port of Mobile north of downtown Mobile. Amtrak is also planning to build a new passenger platform on the site of the legacy platform adjacent to Cooper Riverside Park.

Praising infrastructure law

The construction work is made possible through a $178.4 million Consolidated Rail Infrastructure Safety Improvement (CRISI) grant the Federal Railroad Administration awarded the project in 2022 and financed through approximately $66 billion added within the IIJA.

Of that, more than $70 million will be applied to improvements to rail infrastructure in Alabama including projects backed by the Alabama State Port Authority.

Federal Railroad Administrator Amit Bose said the Gulf Coast project represents one of 170 rail projects the agency provides grants for thanks to the IIJA.

“We wouldn’t be here celebrating today if it wasn’t for that law,” Bose said.

The praise and acknowledgment of the IIJA and the Biden Administration’s role in crafting the program was a sharp contrast to the lack of recognition from Alabama officials in July after the $550 million grant for the I-10 project was announced.

A host of Republican lawmakers – none of whom were in attendance during Buttigieg’s visit to Mobile – mostly praised Alabama’s role in securing the funding.

The IIJA, which long has been described as “bipartisan,” had the support of 13 Republicans in the U.S. Senate. None of Alabama’s Republican lawmakers voted in support of it.

Republican Mississippi U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, a longtime backer of restoring Gulf Coast rail since Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, did support the IIJA. Bose and Buttigieg recognized Wicker’s role in pushing for the project, including raising it as an issue of top concern during their confirmation hearings in 2021.

“The first question (Buttigieg) got from Senator Wicker was about restoring Gulf Coast service,” Bose said. “The first question I got from my confirmation hearing from Wicker was about restoring Gulf Coast service. It was etched into our minds, the importance of this project.”

Buttigieg credited Wicker and other Republicans who crossed over and supported the infrastructure law.

“Roger Wicker was important to that,” he said. “He’s been talking Gulf Coast rail since I first talked to him. I hope we have more (bipartisan support) where that came from. We could use more bipartisan problem solving in Washington. I hope projects like this is an incentive (for more bipartisanship).”

Long process

Getting to a groundbreaking has been a decades-long ordeal that included once fierce opposition to the project by the Alabama State Port Authority, now a project supporter. It also included opposition from CSX and Norfolk Southern, and a case filed by Amtrak before the U.S. Surface Transportation Board that is expected to be dismissed soon.

Buttigieg acknowledged the exhaustive time frame for getting the service restarted more than 19 years since Hurricane Katrina’s damage to the Gulf Coast destroyed the rail line and ended the Sunset Limited’s service west of New Orleans.

“It’s a complicated process,” he said. “We didn’t want another presidency to come and go without a result. With President Biden passionate about passenger rail, it was important for our administration to do something here.”

He later told AL.com that there needs to be a better way to “align our processes so they run more quickly and smoothly” when dealing with multiple layers of bureaucracy as well as the private sector.

“My experience is the more players involved, the longer it takes to do something,” Buttigieg said. “You have a situation here that is multi-state, public and private, federal and local and each layer means you have to go through more folks to get a decision.”

The Gulf Coast route is also unique in that Alabama’s initial support to operate the service for three years comes from a $3.048 million appropriation by the Mobile City Council. Mississippi and Louisiana state governments are providing their share of project support.

Mobile’s commitment is offset somewhat by a $1 million subsidy by the Alabama State Port Authority, and Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has said she supports providing an additional $1 million to help Mobile offset the annual costs to fund the Amtrak operations.

“I know it was a challenging conversation here that took on twists and turns and a partnership,” Buttigieg said, referring to the council’s debate earlier this summer over why the city, and not the state, was subsidizing the Amtrak project. That debate ended with unanimous support in early August, a few weeks after the U.S. Department of Transportation announced the $550 million grant for the I-10 project.

“What resulted was a solution for us to deliver that $178 million,” Buttigieg said, referring to the CRISI grant.

Mobile’s platform

The groundbreaking was also the first time an image was provide on the future Amtrak platform in downtown Mobile that will serve as the easternmost stop for the Gulf Coast route. The other stops along the route include Pascagoula, Biloxi, Gulfport and Bay St. Louis. The route ends at the Union Passenger Terminal in downtown New Orleans.

John Robert Smith, chairman of Transportation for America and a longtime advocate for the Gulf Coast service, said the challenge for Mobile is to provide a quality attraction along the Gulf Coast.

He called the platform a “first step” that should lead to the creation of “a true sense of arrival for local residents and visitors from New Orleans.

“When this is complete, you will have a platform and no canopy,” Smith said. “It’s enough to begin service, which is important. But Mobile leadership needs to determine the quality of arrival they want to provide for their citizens and visitors alike. You want a gateway into your community to say something about your community and provide that sense of arrival.”

Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson, who spent the afternoon visiting with Buttigieg during his trip to Callaghan’s, said the city still has a station design it could pursue. But he said it’s more prudent to see if the Amtrak service will be successful before spending additional money on a train station.

“If we have a real need for it, then we’ll spend the money at that time,” Stimpson said. “I will take city money and grant money. The prudent thing is to make sure the thing is successful.”

Buttigieg said the success of the project will ultimately depend on people “voting on their feet.”

“It’s one thing to show public support for an idea,” he said. “It’s another for the public to support it by participating in it. We will se people choose that route and the more that happens, the more there will be a case for further investments whether it’s the station or more amenities along that route or more connections to a national network from that route.”

He added, “We’ll do whatever we can on the public sector part of it with the infrastructure and things that can’t happen without the federal role. The rest is up to the community, the travelers, and the market to pick up and run with it.”