Restoration of New Orleans - Mobile - Jacksonville Gulf Coast Service

[Ryan]

Service East of Mobile is made painful by a rather large body of water where some dude once said something about torpedoes and going fast.

Back when I worked LCS, I would routinely fly into PNS rather than MOB. It's a nice, super easy and fast drive across the border to Mobile. Driving to Mobile isn't going to be an impediment.

 

[DonNewcomb]

...... Driving to Mobile isn't going to be an impediment.

Two words, "Tunnel traffic" It hasn't been bad in the last year because of COVID but on any given day it's a crap-shoot if it's going to take 10 minutes or 3 hours.

P.S. Local TV news. AMTRAK to complete platform repairs on Gulf Coast Stations - WXXV 25

 

[Ryan]

I would assume you have more knowledge, but I never once sat in tunnel traffic spending a week down there every month or two from 2015-2019.

Of course, I was usually commuting from the Renaissance Riverview to the Austal yard, so I got to skip any line that may have existed.

 

[DonNewcomb]

.....Of course, I was usually commuting from the Renaissance Riverview to the Austal yard, so I got to skip any line that may have existed.

Hopefully you used the Bankhead Tunnel. And yes, you would have missed most of the delays.

 

[jiml]

I was thinking it might be faster nowadays to run the train from Mobile all the way up to Montgomery, then the old Floridian route via Dothan and Waycross to Jacksonville. With the added benefit of serving Montgomery, albeit, missing Tallahassee along the way...

Further to that thought, has anyone thought of routing the Crescent south from Birmingham through Montgomery to Mobile, then to New Orleans as one of the frequencies of the new route?

 

[jis]

Further to that thought, has anyone thought of routing the Crescent south from Birmingham through Montgomery to Mobile, then to New Orleans as one of the frequencies of the new route?

There was a section of the Crescent known as the Gulf Breeze that ran to Mobile for a short while at one time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_Breeze_(train)
It never ran all the way to NOL because the timings for that segment were not considered suitable for garnering sufficient local traffic, specially northbound. The prevalent flow between NOL and Mobile also based on various studies, is considered to be Mobile to NOL in the morning and vice-versa in the evening, which is exactly the opposite direction of what the continuation of the Gulf Breeze to NOL would have been.

 

[Ryan]

Hopefully you used the Bankhead Tunnel. And yes, you would have missed most of the delays.

Royal goes over the tunnel, and it always felt backward to backtrack far enough to make it onto Government to get the Bankhead. Quicker to duck out the Water Street exit and then make the big 360 to roll out onto 10 just as it dove under the water.

Damn, now I really miss that place. May have to take a train there someday.

This caught my eye in the article you posted:

In Mobile, the city plans to locate the rail station at the new Mobile airport at Brookley Field,

"New Mobile Airport" as in commercial service is moving downtown? That would also be amazing.

 

[Anthony V]

The City of Mobile should consider having stations at both the airport and downtown, similar to the station situation in Milwaukee with the Hiawatha Service. This would allow for intermodal trips between train and airplane at the airport station and train and cruise ship at the Cooper Riverside Park station location, as well as being close to the convention center. As far as impacts to the Port of Mobile caused by a downtown station, Amtrak operated a similar NOL-Mobile route twice in it's history, once in the 80's and once in the 90's, with the station at the same site, so there should be some knowledge on the new service's impact on the Port of Mobile. The port's fears of passenger trains impacting the port's operations are WAY overblown.

 

[railiner]

Further to that thought, has anyone thought of routing the Crescent south from Birmingham through Montgomery to Mobile, then to New Orleans as one of the frequencies of the new route?

There was a section of the Crescent known as the Gulf Breeze that ran to Mobile for a short while at one time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_Breeze_(train)
It never ran all the way to NOL because the timings for that segment were not considered suitable for garnering sufficient local traffic, specially northbound. The prevalent flow between NOL and Mobile also based on various studies, is considered to be Mobile to NOL in the morning and vice-versa in the evening, which is exactly the opposite direction of what the continuation of the Gulf Breeze to NOL would have been.

If the Crescent rerouted to its "Crescent Limited" historic route via the CSX between Atlanta and New Orleans, it would be fast, but miss Birmingham, enroute to Montgomery and Mobile. If they ran it on the Gulf Breeze route, besides running at 'the wrong time', it would connect all the dots, but would take much longer to get to New Orleans.

It would also miss the other stops on the current Crescent route. It might be a good idea, if they could run it as a second train all the way to Washington/NY...

 

[Anthony V]

If the Crescent rerouted to its "Crescent Limited" historic route via the CSX between Atlanta and New Orleans, it would be fast, but miss Birmingham, enroute to Montgomery and Mobile. If they ran it on the Gulf Breeze route, besides running at 'the wrong time', it would connect all the dots, but would take much longer to get to New Orleans.

It would also miss the other stops on the current Crescent route. It might be a good idea, if they could run it as a second train all the way to Washington/NY...

I agree that the Crescent should be rerouted onto its original route between Atlanta and NOL via Auburn, Montgomery and Mobile, AL. To preserve service to Birmingham, the service west of Atlanta to as far as Meridian, MS would be turned into a new section of the Crescent and extended to Dallas/Fort Worth via Jackson, MS and Shreveport, LA. Service between NOL and Meridian could be served by either a new corridor train between the two cities or a new Thruway Motorcoach service serving the current Crescent stops between the two cities.

 

[DonNewcomb]

The City of Mobile should consider having stations at both the airport and downtown, similar to the station situation in Milwaukee with the Hiawatha Service....

Excuse my ignorance but I don't recall seeing tracks anywhere near Mobile Airport, which is about 12 miles from the CSX tracks used by the proposed route.

 

[jis]

Excuse my ignorance but I don't recall seeing tracks anywhere near Mobile Airport, which is about 12 miles from the CSX tracks used by the proposed route.

When one is on a flight of fantasy, the range of the fantasy craft is usually unlimited

 

[jimdex]

Running the Crescent via Mobile would require substantial changes to its overall schedule in order to avoid some very strange arrival/departure times in New Orleans.

 

[Anthony V]

Excuse my ignorance but I don't recall seeing tracks anywhere near Mobile Airport, which is about 12 miles from the CSX tracks used by the proposed route.

Mobile is in the process of moving it's commercial aviation services primarily to Brookley Airport, which is a few miles south of Downtown Mobile and adjacent to the CSX tracks. That's where the airport station would be.

 

[DonNewcomb]

https://www.sunherald.com/news/politics-government/article251031509.html?

 

[Mailliw]

Intersing how this has achieved bipartisan support in Mississippi of all places.

 

[adamj023]

Gulf coast contains Texas and Florida which is a huge travel corridor. Both Texas and Florida have expanded their instate rail services. They need connectivity between each other. The problem is due to tropical storms and hurricanes the infrastructure gets destroyed easily so they need a more resilient infrastructure and cost of rebuilding is high.

 

[west point]

The Pensacola super horse shoe adds about 45 minutes extra. Unfortunately eliminating it would leave Pensacola with service even further away from downtown than Maricopa does PHX.

 

[railiner]

The Pensacola super horse shoe adds about 45 minutes extra. Unfortunately eliminating it would leave Pensacola with service even further away from downtown than Maricopa does PHX.

That's the reason St. Petersburg lost its Amtrak service (trains), years ago...takes too long to get around Tampa Bay.

 

[west point]

This FRA grant may get the restoration folks talking that it will happen. IMO not likely. Suspect that much more work will be needed to increase MAX track speeds before.any service will be possible,

3. Florida Gulf & Atlantic Railroad, LLC – Florida Panhandle Rural Capacity Expansion Project: Up to $8,300,000 will be used to replace approximately 70,000 ties, install approximately 14,300 new ties, rehabilitate 11 sidings, and repair 60 grade crossings between Jacksonville and Pensacola, Fla., to increase line capacity. Class III FGA will provide most of a 50% match, with contributions from three private-sector sources. (ASLRRA member)

 

[Cal]

Can we get a daily sunset first?

 

[jis]

Can we get a daily sunset first?

The restoration of service proposed by the Southern Rail Commission does not involve the Sunset Limited in any way.

 

[TWA904]

I have thought about contacting some of CSX's largest stockholders and explain the problem and ask them to put pressure on CSX to drop their objections to the Mobile - NO service.

 

[PaTrainFan]

I have thought about contacting some of CSX's largest stockholders and explain the problem and ask them to put pressure on CSX to drop their objections to the Mobile - NO service.

Your passion is laudable and please, have at it. But do you think they really care? This is minutiae to them.

 

[DonNewcomb]

Amtrak breaks ground for new Gulf Coast platform, though route still uncertain