Plans for new £140m train line along beautiful coast 30 years after it was ‘scrapped’ | Travel News | Travel

A new £140 million train line in America’s South is returning 30 years after being scrapped.

Amtrak’s Gulf Coast train will run twice daily between New Orleans in Louisiana and Mobile in Alabama, with stops in Mississippi’s Bay St. Louis, Gulfport, Biloxi, and Pascagoula.

The 145-mile route first operated from 1984 to 1985, and again from 1996 to 1997. Proposals to reopen the line began in 2017 and will come to fruition this spring.

The first two iterations of the train took about three hours and 25 minutes for the journey and had a cafe lounge for passengers to enjoy en route.

Amtrak received nearly £158 million in federal grants in 2023. They announced that up to £140 million of that money would be used for the project to allow the Mardi Gras Service (the working name of the line) to be built.

New Orleans is world-renowned for its distinctive music, Creole cuisine, unique dialects, and its annual celebrations and festivals, most notably Mardi Gras. 

The French Quarter is the city’s historic heart, known for its French and Spanish Creole architecture and vibrant nightlife along Bourbon Street. 

The city has been described as the “most unique” in the United States, owing in large part to its cross-cultural and multilingual heritage.

Considered one of the Gulf Coast’s cultural centres, Mobile has several art museums, a symphony orchestra, a professional opera, a professional ballet company, and a large concentration of historic architecture.

Mobile is known for having the oldest organised Carnival or Mardi Gras celebrations in the United States. Alabama’s French Creole population celebrated this festival from the first decade of the 18th century.

Stops on the route also have diversions to enjoy. Bay St Louis was named one of the 15 most beautiful places in the American South by Southern Living and Gulfport is known for its white beaches, grand hotels, and significant casino gaming operations.

Similarly, Biloxi is home to eight casino resort hotels, with 24-hour gambling, concert entertainment shows, and several restaurants. Pascagoula was rated one of Outdoor Life’s top towns in America with a rich history and the sights to match.