BATON ROUGE, La. — The state of Louisiana will use money it is retaining through a deal with the federal government to fund a proposed passenger rail operation between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, NOLA.com reports.
The decision by Gov. John Bel Edwards’ administration will direct to the rail project some $20.5 million that the state was set to pay the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. That money was to be part of a $32.5 million settlement over misspent grant funds for victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, but the federal agency said the state could retain $20.5 million if it spent the money to help parishes most impacted by the hurricanes.
Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne told the news site that the state needed to act quickly to spend the money, and made the case to state legislators that the passenger service could eventually be used to evacuate residents ahead of a storm.
HUD’s unexpected offer, Dardenne said, provided the “unexpected ability to put some additional money in rail service to make it a reality.”
The legislature has approved the move, but some now say they should have been given an opportunity to better aid hurricane-prone areas or improve evacuations.
The $20.5 million will be used toward the state’s share of matching funds for a federal grant the state is seeking for the New Orleans-Baton Rouge project. The state is seeking a $200 million federal grant, which would require $50 million in matching funds.
Prospects for the New Orleans-Baton Rouge service soared with the Canadian Pacific-Kansas City Southern merger earlier this year. In 2021, CP said it would agree to allow a single daily round trip to the cities without requiring any infrastructure improvements if the merger was approved, although the railroad noted that as a practical matter, some improvements are likely necessary to improve travel times [see “Canadian Pacific commits to New Orleans-Baton Rouge passenger train …,” Trains News Wire, Dec. 8, 2021]. Additional frequencies would require additional improvements.
No timeline for the start of the rail operation has yet been established.
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