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.
New Orleans to Baton Rouge once daily is INTRASTATE so it appeals to Louisiana politicians. Let’s talk about INTRASTATE travel. There are seven (count them, seven) flights a day from Provincetown (Massachusetts) to Boston. That’s what an intrastate corridor looks like. A train a day New Orleans to Baton Rouge isn’t a corridor, it’s a flop.
From BOS Logan International Airport one can fly to the world. That’s connectivity. Oh, more to the point, at BOS there’s two transit lines (Silver and Blue) to downtown connecting to other points on the subway system. At Logan there are also nose-to-tail buses to anywhere/ everywhere in eastern New England. That’s connectivity.
There’s a reason why rail travel is so successful in Europe. Trains are not only fast and comfortable (on many routes) but also frequent and, most of all, they connect. From York (England) I needed to get to a hotel near Heathrow Airport. Didn’t need to look at a timetable, knowing there’d be a train to London within a few minutes no matter when I got to the station. As it happened, the next train south was to Reading (via Sheffield, Birmingham and Oxford) so I took that, knowing that Reading was just as good as London to pick up a local train to the Heathrow area. Point is, in Europe, you can get a train from almost anywhere to almost anywhere when you want to go. You don’t have to worry about getting to the station early so as not to miss a train, because no matter when you get to the station, another train will come along.
P’town to Boston is where PBA flew the last DC-3’s in schedulled service in the USA. The FAA shut them down because the Gooneys’ 1930’s power-to-weight ratio did not meet current standards. The planes didn’t know that so they flew the route reliably.
I checked Orbitz and there are no direct MSY-BTR filghts but you can connect through Dallas-Ft Worth (DFW) for $367.71.
Passenger rail service was expected to start as soon as 2025.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
Charles L pretty much hit the nail on the head. Yup we need more trains so we can waste more money.
The proposed passenger rail operation between New Orleans and Baton Rouge does need more daily train service.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
There is bus service; Dog and Flixbus run maybe 4 trips a day each way for $15.99 and with a 2-hour running time.
For a train I would first forget the twin Taj Mahals and build a simple station with a ticket office, baggage room, washrooms and seating.
Reistrup is right; you need more than one trip each way.
One round trip per day? Useless. You need at least three to build ridership and give people a choice.
I would imagine there are plenty of folks in New Orleans who do not have a reliable source of transportation to quickly leave. Also, was not some older Amfleet equipment refurbished using FEMA funds to be used for emergency evacuation trains? Where is that equipment? Sitting in a yard somewhere being used for vermin housing? I remember it being used on the on the Crescent for a National Guard move.
How many will voluntarily get on a train and be left without their car during an evacuation?
1. Will the service require two buildings?
2. Why the large canopy parallel to the two buildings?
3. Do they intend to load/disembark from only one track, rather than both? If so, have they planned the switches on either end to get the trains on the station side?
4. Where will the turn-around and train storage yard be?
Everything needs a starting point. I know people who have never traveled Interstate 10 between Baton Rouge and New Orleans and have no clue to what a nightmare it can be. I am thankful the state of Louisiana is taking positive steps to make this travel alternative a reality. More round trips should come later and l feel sure they will be well patronized. We should all be thankful for rail travel as an alternative to driving or flying. If someone doesn’t like it then don’t use it but don’t be a naysayer for us that can benefit greatly from this service.
This for a train a day? Am I missing something?
Some lessons are never learned. It was a half century ago that Paul Reistrup said that in short hauls, three or more trains a day or you’re wasting your time.
Every time our worthless government sends our soldiers into combat in half a war with one hand tied behind their back, and the body bags pile up at Dover (Delaware) AFB for NOTHING, I say to myself, hasn’t anyone ever heard of Vietnam.
Every time some politician proposes hundreds of millions for a half-baked, half-a$$ed train without enough frequency or connectivity for it to work, I say to myself, hasn’t anyone ever heard of Vietnam.