Amtrak meets with Deputy Secretary of Transportation in Bay St. Louis

The team at Amtrak, along with Deputy Secretary of Transportation Polly Trottenberg, got together for an exciting day for the future of railroads along the Coast.

The day began with a ground breaking on a new platform at the Bay St. Louis Depot for the future Amtrak station.

This is the first of five locations to break ground for construction with the other locations being New Orleans, Biloxi, Mobile, and Pascagoula.

The crowd then moved to the community hall where they discussed the future plans for the railroad.

As of now, the Southern Rail Commission has $66 million in funding for the Amtrak rail with about $45 millions of that going towards Mississippi projects alone. Trottenberg said, “This is a project we think is so exciting. A chance to restore the service that was lost after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, and it has been great to see so much local support and support in Washington. The Biden administration also big supporters of the passenger rail and looking forward to making stations accessible.”

Amtrak is hoping to begin the service by January of next year.

The cost of the five new stations alone will cost roughly $2 million total. Amtrak is hoping to build these stations as accessible for all guests all across the Coast. Amtrak Media Relations Manager Marc Magliari said, “We are doing the platforms that are essential to properly serving our customers all the way across the Gulf Coast. We want to make sure these stations are welcoming. In phase one, we’re doing some fairly small projects, but they are essential to starting the service.”

The team is hopeful that the final product will benefit both passenger rail services and freight traffic as efficiently as possible.