NEW ORLEANS — After first being turned back to Chicago at Memphis, Tenn., and later at Jackson, Miss., Amtrak’s City of New Orleans will finally make its grand entrance to the Crescent City one month after Hurricane Ida slammed into Louisiana with torrential rains and strong winds.
The southbound train departing Chicago today and its northbound counterpart the following day will be the first revenue passenger trains to traverse Canadian National’s tracks along Lake Ponchartrain and across the Bonnet Carre Spillway.
Sunset Limited service through hard-hit Lafayette, La., west of New Orleans and along the Crescent’s route east of the city had been restored a little more than a week following the storm, but the City of New Orleans’ path suffered numerous washouts.
The Bonnet Carre Spillway acts as a safety valve for excess Mississippi River waters by funneling them into Lake Ponchartrain but becomes a raging river during periods of heavy rain or spring runoff. Canadian National completed a concrete viaduct last year parallel to an aging wooden trestle that had been destroyed in a 2016 fire; demolition crews were spotted pulling up the old structure in June.
The City’s scenic route between Kenner and Ponchatoula, Louisiana, through always-swampy terrain and across the Pass Manchac drawbridge hugs Lake Ponchartrain and contains significant portions of earthen embankments. Photos taken one week after the storm by a nola.com photographer showed tracks washed off bridges and the massive clean-up operation that lay ahead.
