Surface Transportation Board holds Amtrak hearing

For the first time, the Surface Transportation Board is hearing the case for bringing Amtrak back to the Coast.

The Mississippi Coast hasn’t been connected to Mobile and New Orleans via Amtrak since Hurricane Katrina.

Now, the board is weighing evidence gathered by Amtrak on whether our railways could add passenger trains to their freight traffic.

CSX Transportation argues there is already too much freight traffic on the rails. Amtrak Spokesman Marc Magliari said, “If you live around here, if you watch these tracks, you don’t see trains once an hour, twice an hour, three times an hour– or three hours or four hours or five hours between trains. That’s how unbusy this is. And there’s $66 million on the table to make improvements to this railroad, mostly here in Mississippi, where most of the tracks are.”

No word yet on when the STB will reach a decision.