MOBILE, Ala. — The start for Amtrak Gulf Coast service remains to be determined, but Amtrak trains will begin operating on the route between Mobile, Ala., and New Orleans this week.
Beginning Wednesday, Feb. 8, crew-training runs with Amtrak locomotives and cars will begin, with the first crew set to mark up in Mobile at 9 a.m. Because the trains are operating as extras, it is not known when they will actually depart Mobile or be elsewhere on the 144-mile route.
Concurrent with the start of crew qualification, Amtrak, the Southern Rail Commission, and the Operation Lifesaver safety campaign are beginning public-education events about the presence of passenger trains on the route, beginning Wednesday in Pascagoula, Miss., and Gulfport, Miss. — two of the stations where platforms have been upgraded in preparation for the start of service. Those events are set for 10 a.m. in Pascagoula and noon in Gulfport; while they have been timed for possible inclusion of the crew-qualification train, they will be held at those times whether or not the train is available.
The crew qualification runs will continue for several months.
And still here in Mobile they’re nowhere to load or unload passengers. Business as usual in Bama.
Why would AMTRAK operate these trains out of Mobile where they have have no equipment, no track, unless part of the recent agreement, no crews? Why not operate from New Orleans unless space is limited there?
Regarding the question of having enough locos and cars to provide this new route vs equipment shortages on the existing lines brings up the point of keeping some of the older equipment in reserve or mothballed rather than retire or scrap it. Amtrak would have been wise to keep some F40s around as protection power just as they would be wise to retain some of the Genesis units as backup for the new Charger units and also to keep an ample fleet of equipment around for future expansion. Years ago railroads were very proactive in keeping fleets of equipment in storage for any expansion or increase in service and were not too hasty in getting rid of older equipment by either selling it off or scrapping it. A history lesson here…World War II was won due to the railroads pitching in and making available every piece of usable equipment including old locomotives, passenger cars and boxcars including cars waiting to be scrapped and other cars and locos either in storage or retired and placed in service to move goods, supplies, troops and weapons and military equipment to the front. If we had to fight a major war today it ould be a logistics disaster especially if the military had to depend on our nation’s railroads to move goods and troops. Shortages of equipment. bad dispatching and scheduling of trains and nothing to run or equipment in need of repair or missing parts. The moral of this narrative is this Alway keep a backup fleet and plan in use and be prepared for any upturns or expansion of service and also provide insurance when the new equipment breaks down or has complex issues with it due to today’s Space Age technology
Joseph C. Markfelder
Today’s military had backup transportation, cargo airplanes and trucks.
Excellent Question Laurence
How can they run new trains when they don’t have the equipment for the existing trains????
Almost there….