First of two parts
NEW ORLEANS — Confetti cannons that showered Amtrak’s 10-car Mardi Gras Service inaugural special as it headed to Mobile, Ala., on Aug. 16, 2025, have moved on to other celebrations.
Meanwhile, the twice-daily, New Orleans-Mobile round trips have proven that the day’s enthusiasm has survived the transition. The next tasks: completion of already paid-for infrastructure improvements and beefing up oversight and marketing capabilities of the multi-state compact that successfully pushed to start the service.
A 3-minute video produced by Transportation For America recaps the inaugural festivities.
Dissecting early performance
At the quarterly meeting of the Southern Rail Commission on Sept. 5, Arun Rao, Amtrak’s senior director of network development, and Mike Jerew, Sr., manager of state-supported services, shared data for the first 15 days of Mardi Gras service, Aug. 18-Sept. 1. Key takeaways:
Ridership. There were 6,700 passengers, an average of 447 per day. The average load factor was 65%, with a peak of 75%, on a train with 120 seats in the two Amfleet II coaches and another 17 in the Amfleet I business class/café car. Patronage was spread nearly evenly across all four trains but the most crowded, unsurprisingly, were the New Orleans morning arrival (train No. 23) and afternoon departure (No. 26).
Sales. Average fares were $26 in coach and $64 in business, though high utilization of share-fare discounts for parties of three to eight made pricing more affordable for groups. Saturdays generated the most revenue, while a noticeable dip occurred Wednesday and Thursday.
Punctuality. Overall customer on-time performance during the period was 80%, with a 98% on-time initial terminal departure but an 82% endpoint arrival. The all-inclusive OTP number is lower than the endpoint because the majority of recovery time (padding) is scheduled at the end. The most active intermediate stop, Bay Saint Louis, Miss., has seen the greatest delays because that is just east of where the morning and afternoon trains meet.
Rao and Jerew note that Customer Service Index (CSI) scores exceeded national averages in all measures, but especially Amtrak staff interactions. The post-trip surveys also revealed that for a majority of respondents, this was their first Amtrak trip.
Jerew attributed the positive public acceptance to what he characterized as a “Hypercare” program to “triage” any issues with onboard staff, Amtrak mechanical, and host railroad personnel that developed during the first weeks. “Based on 41 years of my experience at Amtrak,” he said, “I don’t think I’ve been part of a more outstanding start of service.”
A closer look
Also no stranger to service starts is Jay McArthur, a now-retired former Amtrak senior manager. He was hired by the SRC as an interim executive director consultant until the group has the financial resources to hire full-time staff to manage day-to-day operations and grant-proposal submissions.
Involved with North Carolina’s Piedmont and Maine’s Downeaster launches, McArthur spent 25 years in operations with Amtrak, “then I found a good job negotiating contracts with states,” he told Trains.com during an interview aboard the inaugural run. “So I clearly get the notion of what states or agencies want and the reality of what Amtrak can provide.”
His analysis of the Mardi Gras first weeks: Amtrak is doing an excellent job with its onboard crews and “getting trains out of the chute” but morning eastbound train No. 24 “seems to be really struggling to get through the New Orleans terminal. We can’t forget, Norfolk Southern has some ownership of those trains leaving New Orleans [on the “Back Belt,” which also hosts the Crescent], but by and large the service looks great.”
CSX has generally kept its 2-mile-long freights that don’t fit sidings away from the morning and evening passenger train windows. That is not always the case with shorter merchandise trains. The railroad once attempted faster intermodal service on the route but gave it up, a factor that would drive CSX’s years-long insistence passenger-train sponsors must pay to ensure that a host is able to operate any way it wants. But service has begun without completion of most of the $235 million in capacity upgrades, largely federally financed.
McArthur, another experienced Amtrak expat Joe McHugh — who managed state-supported services during a 30-year career with the company — and Scott Naparstek, former Amtrak executive vice president and chief operating officer, have also been providing valuable advice to the SRC.
Committed, hands-on local Amtrak overseers including New Orleans district manager Richard Hullender and assistant superintendent Ethan O’Neal are playing a prominent role. In addition to regular supervisory duties, Hullender, for instance, has been actively involved in training station hosts along the route who assist first-time passengers.
Nikki Moon, as well as longtime Bay Saint Louis resident, SRC commissioner Kay Kell, previously city manager of both Bay Saint Louis and Pascagoula, Miss., have spearheaded the town’s host and connectivity programs. Moon told the meeting that 35 people have volunteered to greet the trains’ morning and early evening arrivals. Sixteen have been trained by Hullender thus far in assistance that volunteer hosts can legally provide at the platform, as opposed to duties that must be performed by Amtrak crew members.
Bay Saint Louis has also embraced the “last mile” conundrum for would-be passengers. Town-subsidized golf carts meet every train, ready to take passengers to and from businesses, hotels, and restaurants. The nearby Hollywood Casino offers free Uber rides to and from the platform.
Mobile tourism interests have also subsidized a golf cart program that guarantees availability to downtown locations after every arrival. And Gulfport-Biloxi’s “Play Coastal Mississippi” promotion is making a concerted effort at getting the word out to international travelers.
Coming Monday: Part 2 — challenges ahead
Updated on Sept. 15 with proper titles for Kay Kell, SRC commissioner.
The $64,000 question: will ridership paying fares high enough for the service to continue after the initial Amtrak operating subsidy expires in three years? We’ll get our first clue after the all of the initial discount expire. Hopefully they can add an additional car to each frequency soon, and get some of those agreed upon track improvements started before CSX gets impatient.
The impending Airo sets will have six or eight cars. From what I’ve seen the Fat Tuesday express runs with two coaches and a cafe. These short hop/short trains will need new equipment too.
That would be a great plus. Was in Mobile the past week and pretty sad to see that the current configuration of two coaches and one biz class/cafe. Talk about an underwhelming way to capture ridership with the horsepower provided.
As a reminder to all — It’s also sad that the tri-weekly CARDINAL operates with only two, 60-seat Amfleet II coaches for seating capacity (along with a cafe, a sleeper and a bag/dorm) and has operated –SOLD OUT– virtually every trip all Summer. Amtrak says it doesn’t have any extra cars to add a 3rd or 4th coach to the CARDINAL, even though it only operates 3-days-a-week and passengers are forced to try to ride on the few days it runs. Yet Amtrak could easily remove one coach for each of four NEC Regional train sets, then reconfigure the 72-seats coaches, by removing 12 seats, and convert them into 60-seat long-distance coaches and add them to the CARDINAL to dramatically boost capacity on the tri-weekly route. While those four coaches would never be missed on the NEC, which offers dozens of trains daily.
And just announced — Amtrak miraculously can find two extra coaches to suddenly add a 3rd coach on the two MARDI GRAS train sets for football Sundays. Isn’t it amazing one train route, that has multiple daily frequencies, can get extra coaches, while another train route, that only operates tri-weekly, can’t get extra cars!
Put the NEC under PRIIA we’ll see how willing those states are to bear the cost of their premium service.
Change the formula.
Amtrak is intercity, this interstate. Have the states pay for commuter trains (including their share of capital improvements) and have the feds pay for Amtrak.
Start-up statistics for approximately one month are meaningless. Check back in a year for realistic numbers.
It will be interesting to see how much this service costs the taxpayers and the average subsidy per rider. In FY24 the State Supported Trains cost federal and state taxpayers $601.7 million or an average subsidy per rider of $41.51. These numbers are just those flowing from the operating losses. For fully allocated costs, one probably is safe to add another 20 to 30 percent to them.
Do we speculate that the multiple frequency (2X daily) has something to do with the success?
My wife, grandkids and myself are riding the Mardi Gras service for the first time this coming weekend. I’ve spoken with several friends who’ve already ridden the train and they all have expressed how much they enjoyed it. All have made plans to ride again in the near future.