The route from New Orleans to Jacksonville would have Florida stops in Pensacola, Crestview, Chipley, Tallahassee, Madison, Lake City and Jacksonville.

CRESTVIEW — Amtrak officials must have had an inkling folks along the Gulf Coast would be excited about the return of passenger trains to the region, if only for a limited engagement.

Prior to embarking on a Feb. 18-19 run from New Orleans to Jacksonville, those officials told Southern Rail Commission Chairman Greg White, “you’re going to be pleased” by the number of people turning out to see the passing train.

VIDEO of the trek from Pensacola to Crestview here, here, here, here, here, and here.

White’s organization had headed an extensive marketing effort to let people know Amtrak would be sending an inspection train out to re-trace the steps of its Sunset Crescent, a route from New Orleans to Jacksonville that was discontinued in 2005.

But “no one knew what to expect” until the first stop of the two-day trek, White said.

“When we got to Bay St. Louis, there were 250 people there. Nobody expected that kind of turnout,” White said. “And it got bigger at every stop after that.”



Daily rail service is goal

The train, carrying dignitaries, railroad executives and media, made 14 stops during its two-day excursion — actually 15, counting the unexpected Milton stop to pick up a congresswoman left behind in Pensacola.

At each stop, including in Crestview, cheerleaders, bands and people waving signs that said things like “Geaux Amtrak” were there to greet the train.

Before pulling out of Pensacola on the morning of Feb. 19, Tom Carper, immediate past chairman of the Amtrak board of directors, addressed a large crowd gathered to see the train off.

Carper told the audience he had two-and-a-half years left as a board member and hoped before stepping down he could make the inaugural voyage celebrating the return of daily service to the Gulf Coast.

The goal, White said, is to have a train run daily between New Orleans and Jacksonville, thereby re-establishing a commuter rail connection from New Orleans to Orlando and from there deep into South Florida.

In New Orleans riders will be able to climb aboard the fabled City of New Orleans route and connect to northern destinations that include Jackson, Miss., Memphis, Tenn., and Chicago.

The City of New Orleans extension, as the New Orleans to Jacksonville leg is presently being called, would have Florida stops in Pensacola, Crestview, Chipley, Tallahassee, Madison, Lake City and Jacksonville.

The train would also stop in Atmore and Mobile in Alabama, Pascagoula, Biloxi, Gulfport and Bay St. Louis in Mississippi, and New Orleans in Louisiana.

“I think it would be great for the area,” said Crestview Mayor David Cadle, who is spearheading a project to improve the city’s tiny railroad depot in time for the arrival of commuter rail.



The Sunset Limited

At one time the New Orleans to Jacksonville run served as a link in the route known as the Sunset Limited.

The Sunset Limited was first established in 1894, long before Amtrak came around in 1971. The oldest continuously running rail line in the United States, in its heyday, connected Florida to Los Angeles.

It was plagued in modern times, though, by a failure to move its trains on time. There were reports of trains arriving sometimes a whole day or better after they were scheduled.

The line also lost money, and had to be heavily subsidized by the federal government.

The route between New Orleans and Jacksonville was shut down in 2005 with Hurricane Katrina bearing down on the Gulf Coast.

Rail lines destroyed by the storm had been rebuilt by 2006, but the suspended passenger rail service has never been re-established.



A new day

Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said when commuter rail returns to the Gulf Coast, the company will be able to provide much more efficient service than was offered prior to 2005.

“The former service is not what is being talked about,” Magliari said. “This route won’t originate in Los Angeles.”

The lengthy delays that marred the Sunset Limited route occurred almost exclusively west of New Orleans, Magliari said, and were exacerbated by a three-day-a-week schedule.

It is anticipated trains on the new New Orleans to Jacksovnille run will move east and west from early afternoon through the night daily.

Magliari said Amtrak will tolerate delays of no more than 15 minutes.

John Robert Smith heads Transportation for America, a national alliance of local leaders dedicated to improving transportation across the country.

Smith said re-establishing commuter rail service to the Gulf Coast will create “an interstate of steel rail” that will link communities and promote economic development.

A former mayor of Meridian, Miss., Smith points to his hometown as an example of how rail service can provide a boon to a community.

Meridian, Smith said, spent $1.3 million of its own money and locked in federal funding to build a $6 million railroad depot.

The depot has become an urban center. A place where weddings, reunions and retirement ceremonies are held.

“It’s the most widely used public space in downtown Meridian,” Smith said. “We have over 300,000 people a year pass through that building.”

And the city has secured a 100-to-1 return on investment, Smith said.

“For the $1.3 million spent, we’ve seen $130 million in public-private investment within three blocks of that station. We brought life into downtown,” he said.

The trick to finding success, Smith said, is to make sure travelers getting off a passenger train know what in the area is available to them and make sure they can conveniently get there.

Cadle, who envisions a railroad depot in Crestview with a restaurant and other amenities, said he has spoken to chamber of commerce officials about lining up shuttle buses to hotels and area attractions.



Funding the project

Amtrak conducted a study in 2015 that determined it could most effectively serve the Gulf Coast region by establishing the daily New Orleans to Jacksonville run along with another “state-supported” run between Mobile and New Orleans.

The study estimates 153,900 passengers would travel 65.1 million miles annually if the two lines were opened for business.

It estimates Amtrak would collect $12.72 million in annual ticket, food and beverage sales but incur $3.93 million in annual operating expenses, $609,000 in annual equipment capital expenses and $5.71 million in annual incremental operating loss.

So, Amtrak would operate its City of New Orleans Extension, along with the Mobile to New Orleans line, at a projected $9.49 million loss, the study said.

There also will likely be start up costs.



Health of the rail line

While the inspection train’s run to Jacksonville was an obvious success from a publicity standpoint, its true mission was to give railroad executives an indication of the health of the rail line, which is owned and maintained by CSX Transportation, White said.

“In the rear car you had Amtrak and CSX people looking at computerized equipment and screens tracking foot by foot by foot,” White said.

The Amtrak report, the data collected during the inspection run, economic development potential, impact on freight rail service and other costs and benefits of re-establishing commuter rail service will all be considered by a 20-person regional task force.

Task force members will also come up with a permanent name for the New Orleans to Jacksonville route, decide when trains will leave and arrive, and make recommendations as to which cities will get stops.

The task force met for the first time in New Orleans prior to the inspection train trip, said Smith, who serves as a policy advisor to the group.

It has until September to put together an analysis of all the data collected and present it to Congress in hopes of receiving an appropriation under the FAST Act.



Making dreams realities

On Dec. 4, President Barack Obama signed the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act into law.

The FAST Act authorized the expenditure of $305 billion over five years for improvements to the nation’s infrastructure, with $10 billion dedicated to federal rail service.

Included in the bill was a provision providing $500,000 to study the feasibility of restoring passenger rail service to the Gulf Coast.

While the FAST Act authorized spending for the Gulf Coast rail project, the money needed to make the project a reality must still be appropriated by Congress.

The New Orleans to Jacksonville route, by virtue of the distance it covers, would be federally funded. Smith said it’s possible when the FAST Act expires in fiscal year 2020, operating costs for the New Orleans to Jacksonville route will be added to Amtrak’s annual budget.

It’s also possible, he said, that private entities, perhaps casinos, could step in to help cover the cost of providing rail service that brings customers to their doorsteps.



Opposition to subsidizing rail service

Republicans in Congress have traditionally opposed subsidizing Amtrak.

U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller, representing Northwest Florida in Congressional District 1, still does.

“I have consistently opposed raising Amtrak subsidies and support moving towards sustainability of operations without using taxpayer funds,” Miller, R-Chumuckla, said.

“I would like to have the service running through Northwest Florida again; however, this nation is at a point financially where we must prioritize not what we want, but rather what we need.”

“The Sunset Limited route east of New Orleans has historically required one of the highest per passenger subsidies,” Miller added. “I don’t believe the demand has changed significantly enough to make the service break even.”

White said, however, that some Republican opposition has fallen away as the potential for economic development in rural areas is realized.

Republican U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi is behind restoring the New Orleans to Jacksonville route, as are Phil Bryant and Robert Bentley, the Republican governors of Mississippi and Alabama, respectively.

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Florida, has spoken in support of the Gulf Coast rail line being reopened to passenger trains and U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown, a Democrat from Jacksonville, rode the inspection train.

Brown’s enthusiastic support of the passenger rail, and willingness to speak on its behalf, may have been what was behind her missing the train when it left Pensacola on Feb. 19.

A police officer had to rush Brown to Milton, where an unscheduled stop was made to allow her to board.

She was back in front of a microphone in Crestview, urging residents to push her colleague Miller to get behind passenger rail.

“This is bigger than Republicans versus Democrats,” said White.

“We think the politics has really lined up. Not by accident, but because of a lot of hard work. We think this is the best chance we’ve had in a long time to grow our business.”