MOBILE, Ala. — A once-unlikely source — the Alabama State Port Authority — has agreed to provide a share of the funding needed to launch Amtrak service between New Orleans and Mobile, Ala.
On Tuesday, the Port Authority board, once a vehement opponent of Gulf Coast service on the grounds it might interfere with freight operations, agreed to provide $1 million toward costs for the first three years of the passenger operation, WALA-TV reports.
That advances a tentative agreement between Mobile, the state of Alabama, and the Port Authority to share the $3.045 million in funding that had previously been Mobile’s responsibility, since Gov. Kay Ivey opposed state support [see “Mobile, port, and Alabama strike tentative deal …,” Trains News Wire, June 11, 2024].
The Port Authority’s view has been swayed by the more than $70 million in infrastructure improvements planned in Alabama under a federal grant contingent on the launch of service — improvements that will benefit the port even if the passenger service doesn’t last beyond its initial three-year commitment, as Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimson has pointed out.
While the unanimous vote by the Port Authority board clears one more hurdle in the long-running effort to launch the Gulf Coast service, the state has still not identified a source for its share of the funds, since its budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year is already set. The process also still hinges on approval in Mobile for both the operating funding and a lease for city-owned land at the site of the planned Mobile station platform and parking lot, and WALA reports at least two city council members remain opposed to providing funding. The council must approve that funding by a 5-2 supermajority.
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