Madison Arnold | Pensacola News Journal

Officials aren't full steam ahead on passenger rail service in Pensacola, but the train hasn't totally left the station, either.

Plans are underway for a three-year pilot program to create twice-daily Amtrak service from New Orleans to Mobile, Marc Magliari, spokesman for Amtrak, told me Wednesday. Then officials and passenger rail advocates can start a dialogue about expanding service to Atmore, Pensacola and farther east.

"There's significant interest over in Atmore. Certainly the city administration and others in Pensacola were very excited when we were there. And as you make your way east across the Panhandle, there are interested cities where we have stopped before or where we have never stopped," Magliari said about 2016 visit by Amtrak.

Tony Giberson/tgiberson@pnj.com

Service from Pensacola to Jacksonville was stopped after Hurricane Ivan in 2004. Before then, Pensacola saw service just three days a week and mostly overnight, Magliari said.

Amtrak is working closely with the Southern Rail Commission, which Florida is not a part of, to restore the service from New Orleans to Mobile. The commission is talking with state of Florida leadership, however, because expansion requires state participation. The group already has Mississippi and Louisiana on board.

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Keith Wilkins, deputy city administrator, said Pensacola leaders would like for Amtrak service to be restored to Pensacola, but he didn't have much potential funding to contribute. And he hadn't heard much talk on working on the effort at the state level.

City officials rode from Pensacola to Crestview as part of an inspection ride by Amtrak across the Gulf Coast in 2016, which seemingly went pretty well. Magliari said there was a "pretty huge" public turnout then.

Tony Giberson/tgiberson@pnj.com

Until any Amtrak action is taken, the city is just moving forward with plans that could revitalize the Amtrak station itself. The facility at 980 E. Heinberg St. has been vacant and vandalized for years now, marked by graffiti, broken widows and stolen copper pipes.

"It’s a great facility even though it’s been vandalized. It’s in terrible shape right now," Wilkins said.

The city was just recently released by the Florida Department of Transportation to use the station for non-transportation purposes. Before now, it was bound to that use because DOT funds paid for its construction.

Who could use an old train station?

The city doesn't have the $150,000 to $200,000 needed to restore the building. So instead, they planned to let a tenant or tenants pay for the renovation and, in turn, apply that to market-rate rent until it reaches the likely $200,000 investment, Wilkins said.

This is a similar deal to the one between the city and the First City Art Center.

It sounds as though a couple of nonprofits and a railroad company are interested in arrangement.

The first group to show interest was Monument to Women Veterans, which hopes to use the interior for office space as well as construct a memorial outside. They've been pursuing the property for over a year, Wilkins said.

The second organization is Florida Gulf and Atlantic Railroad, which you might remember purchased CSX's 373 miles of rail line between Pensacola and Jacksonville. It's looking to use the building for more offices, Wilkins said.

And the most recent group to show interest is Keep Pensacola Beautiful. That nonprofit needs a new plan for office space after it walked away from plans to purchase the old Hygeia Coca-Cola bottling plant after an architect's report showed water damage and mold cleanup was far too costly.

As an aside, the Coca-Cola building seemingly came up for sale about the time the Florida Department of Corrections paid $1.5 million to settle a lease for the building, which it never moved into, News Journal reporting revealed.

Madison Arnold

OK, back to the Amtrak station. Wilkins said the city requested the groups communicate with each other to see if one, two or all three could operate in the same space, which spans about 5,000 square feet.

If not, it'll likely go first come, first served, Wilkins said.

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The space itself was built as a "group change station" for Amtrak, meaning employees could use locker rooms and showers to change clothes. There's also space for offices, a ticketing booth and lobby.

Much of that could be repurposed by the tenants.

There's no timeline on the lease, but the sooner the better. Ideally, a signed lease and acceptable financial plan from the tenant is just a few months out, Wilkins said, because the longer the property sits vacant, the worse off it gets.

A lease would need Pensacola City Council approval before being finalized.

Madison Arnold

Could Amtrak return to the station?

The short answer is: maybe.

Magliari said all Amtrak would really need would be a clean, safe space for passengers to wait and bathrooms. The company doesn't really need the same space nowadays with so many ticket purchases over the phone or online.

If the service was ever ready to return, the first space the company would ask the city about is likely the station, Wilkins said. And if all it needs is a waiting area and perhaps a kiosk of some sort, it could still work, but the city would have to find out exactly what Amtrak needs then.

Before this station, the staple of Pensacola passenger rail travel was the Pensacola Grand Hotel, a historic depot constructed in 1912.