McCOMB, Miss. —The Army Corps of Engineers’ decision to open portions of a spillway to divert Mississippi River waters has once again prompted Canadian National to prevent Amtrak’s City of New Orleans from operating over its full route.
The move to open additional bays of the Bonnet Carre Spillway, to keep rising waters away from New Orleans levees, means CN will not allow the Amtrak train to cross a wooden trestle between Hammond, La., and New Orleans.
However, instead of allowing the train to make a bus transfer at Hammond before or after it deadheads to the Crescent City for servicing, CN has told Amtrak that the passenger swap must be made 52 miles further north at McComb, Miss. It also is prohibiting the City from stopping at Brookhaven and Hazlehurst, Miss., between McComb and Jackson, Miss.
When the spillway was opened last year, CN forced Amtrak to make the transfer 130 miles north of Hammond at Jackson.
“We want to thank Canadian National for allowing us to shorten the bus ride for our passengers compared to the operation that took place for several months last year,” Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari tells Trains News Wire. [See “City of New Orleans route truncated indefinitely by flood mitigation,” News Wire, Feb 26, 2019.]
Asked why the transfer was being made at McComb, and why the train is not allowed to stop at the two Mississippi stations just because it isn’t operating with passengers through to New Orleans, CN government affairs personnel emailed the following statement:
“CN works closely with Amtrak to provide safe and efficient passenger rail service to the city of New Orleans. When the US Army Corps of Engineers opens the Bonnet Carre Spillway, Amtrak trains will not operate with passengers across the spillway bridge. CN is in the process of building a new bridge at our cost which will alleviate the issue.”
The railroad has planned to replace the aging, mostly wooden single-track structure that carries the City of New Orleans and CN trains over water that is often fast moving even if few bays are open. A trestle fire in February 2016 caused Amtrak to bus passengers to and from New Orleans for several months.
When the spillway was opened last year, CN spokesman Alexandre Boule similarly told Trains News Wire, “a new bridge on CN’s McComb Sub is already in the process of being built.” An observer in the area tells Trains News Wire that little apparent progress has been made, and CN declined to provide details about a construction timeline.
The spillway, completed in 1931, was first opened to control flooding in 1937 and has only been opened 15 times since it was built. Four of those instances have occurred during the last three years. New Orleans TV station WDSU reports that 10 of a possible 350 of the spillway’s bays that allow water to flow into Lake Ponchartrain were opened last Friday, but as many as 90 may be opened in the coming weeks as a result of heavy rains.
As was the case in the spring of 2019, the decision of when through City of New Orleans service will resume depends on the Army Corps of Engineers assessment of when water diversion through the spillway will no longer be needed.
— Updated at 6:30 p.m. CDT to clarify dates spillway was completed and first opened.
