Interest might be growing toward placing a future Amtrak train station tied to the Downtown Mobile Airport.

Mobile area officials with the Southern Rail Commission (SRC) – a 21-member group of advocates for comprehensive rail activity in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama -- say it’s too early to speculate where the train station will be, even if interest seems to be pointing toward a location at the Mobile Aeroplex at Brookley complex where the downtown airport is located.

Fueling that interest is the Alabama State Port Authority, the Mobile-based state agency that has long expressed skepticism toward Amtrak’s return to the Gulf Coast connecting Mobile to New Orleans. Port officials believe a Brookley location would be preferable than having a downtown train station at the foot of Government Street adjacent to Cooper Riverside Park.

“Relocating the passenger rail facility to Brookley is a better alternative from our viewpoint, but CSX and Norfolk Southern may still have concerns,” said Judith Adams, spokeswoman with the port.

A decision on where to place the train station in Mobile would occur following conversations between Amtrak and CSX, which operates freight traffic along a majority of the Gulf Coast route. A CSX representative didn’t respond to a request for comment.

“The community decides where they want to put those stations,” said Marc Magliari, spokesman with Amtrak. “We go to the railroads who own the tracks and see if its operationally feasible. This is not uncommon.”

Brookley interest

Another interested party in a Brookley station is the Mobile Airport Authority, which is leading a master plan into the relocation of commercial aviation services from Mobile Regional Airport in the city’s far western edges to Brookley, which is near downtown.

“The idea of the Amtrak train station coming to Mobile is enticing, and certainly more enticing if it can be located at the downtown airport,” said Chris Curry, president of the authority. “We see the presence of rail as a compliment to what we’re doing with air service and the continued development of the airport in general.”

The Brookley Aeroplex is an industrial and business park located about three miles southwest of downtown Mobile that has experienced a renaissance in activity in recent years. In 2016, the complex became the home to Mobile’s massive Airbus aircraft manufacturing plant. And in the coming years, city officials believe the Aeroplex is best suited to house an international commercial airport.

Flights are already taking off from an $8 million terminal that opened in May and established the Downtown Mobile Airport as a commercial operation. The airport currently accommodates two Frontier Airlines flights to Denver and Chicago, and performance has been strong: Curry said the Chicago flights were around 80% full, while the flights to Denver were around 90% capacity. Denver is Frontier’s hub.

The Federal Aviation Administration committed in July to $1.35 million to provide the lion’s share of the funding of the master plan that looks into shifting the commercial airline services to Brookley.

Curry said the master plan will “highly likely” include an analysis of how a future train station “fits into the overall profile of the airport.”

“There are cases throughout the country where trains are connected to terminals, are in close proximity to terminals such as within walking distance, and there are others where you can (access) ground transportation to connect trains to airport terminals,” said Curry. “All of those things could be looked at. But nothing has been determined at all.”

Curry said the potential of attracting three major transportation modes – rail via Amtrak, an airport and the nearby Interstate 10 – would make the complex competitive in attracting more businesses and visitors.

“When you look at the bigger picture of what we should all be trying to accomplish, these transportation modes should give Mobile a great advantage over a lot of other cities not as fortunate with the geographical location that we have,” Curry said.

Rail analysis

A rendering of the proposed train station for downtown Mobile, Ala. The station is slightly elevated to avoid damage from any storm surge-related flooding that might occur at the Mobile waterfront. The renderings were first released during an information hearing on the proposed Gulf Coast Amtrak rail route on Friday, July 12, 2019, at the Arthur R. Outlaw Mobile Convention Center in downtown Mobile, Ala. The city is now examining whether the train station should be located near the Downtown Mobile Airport. (supplied rendering).

A separate engineering analysis is also underway to determine the scope of rail-related infrastructure needs that required to get passenger rail restarted between New Orleans and Mobile.

The analysis is expected to be finalized within “three months,” according to SRC officials. Included within that will be a cost estimate on how much work will be needed to build a train station within the Brookley complex.

Three Mobile-area representatives on the SRC – Wiley Blankenship, president/CEO with Coastal Alabama Partnership; David Clark, president/CEO with Visit Mobile; and Stephen McNair, a historic preservation consultant – confirmed with AL.com that Brookley is an option that is being examined, but one which could cost more in infrastructure-related expenditures.

The downtown site at Cooper Riverside Park and Government Street is referred to as a “legacy” site, meaning that Amtrak doesn’t need to ask permission to operate a train station at it. The site was the home of the city’s former train station that was inundated with flooding and destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

A site at the Brookley complex, by comparison, still requires approval from both Amtrak and CSX.

“I would say all options are on the table,” said McNair. “We are examining both sites equally.”

He added, “We feel the legacy site and a station at Brookley provide options that will not impede freight traffic with the port. But working with the port and making sure they are comfortable with the station site is something we take very seriously.”

Clark said the interest in the Brookley site is to simply look at an option that doesn’t interfere with the downtown port.

“It doesn’t make sense to interfere with the port, so we’ve stepped back and we’re collaborating with potential partners to see what the costs are,” he said.

Blankenship said estimates, while not finalized, include about $2.2 million for infrastructure-related work if the city utilizes the downtown site as a train station. It would be more costly – $3 million to $4 million – to locate at Brookley.

Financial commitments

The three SRC members recently approached the Mobile County Commission about the train station prospects. In the past, only the Mobile City Council has been included in discussions about providing public support toward the Mobile-to-New Orleans Amtrak route.

The city’s fiscal year 2020 budget, which could be voted on today, doesn’t include any money for a train station.

“You need to have numbers on the Brookley site’s potential first before you can really do anything,” said Blankenship, referring to requests the SRC might make to Mobile city or county officials about supporting rail-relate improvements.

He said the goal is to get a “financial commitment” from the local governments. He said infrastructure improvements can be budgeted over a four-year time period.

Curry also said it was too early to tell whether the airport authority would entertain an intergovernmental agreement to support a train station.

Curry said that the SRC representatives are “taking the lead” on the initiative.

Seeking a financial commitment from an Alabama public agency has been a difficulty. Gov. Kay Ivey has long said she remains “open-minded” to the Amtrak project, but that her office needs more “answers” about its impact to the State Port.

Most of the project’s enthusiasm has been credited to Republican U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi. The project has also been embraced by Republican Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant and Louisiana Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards.

Louisiana has committed $10 million and Mississippi close to $15 million to support a project includes the operation of two trains daily – with four stops in each city – during reasonable hours to accommodate business or tourism schedules. The trains will travel at speeds of 79 mph, with trips to New Orleans – including stops in Pascagoula, Biloxi, Gulfport and Bay St. Louis.

The entire project was buoyed by a $33 million federal grant through the Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) program to complete rail line improvements necessary for passenger rail restoration. Another $4.36 million in Restoration and Enhancement (R&E) grants were announced in August to support its operations.

Alabama is being asked to support $2.2 million in infrastructure improvements – an amount that could go up if the train station locates to Brookley.

The state also would have to finance the operations of the train. One estimate, provided earlier this summer, shows that under worst-case scenarios in which ridership numbers are lower than they were in the 1990s, the state would owe around $3 million over a three-year period.

The SRC anticipates the New Orleans-to-Mobile route restarted in less than two years. The restarted route would represent the first time Amtrak has rolled along the Gulf Coast since Hurricane Katrina destroyed much of the route.

Rail advocates have said that the service would be improved upon from previous Amtrak routes that once rolled into Mobile: Gulf Coast Limited (1984-85), Gulf Breeze (1989-95) and Sunset Limited. The latter was a long-distance service connecting Florida with Los Angeles, but was marred with performance problems and stopped in Mobile only three times a week before Katrina hit the Gulf Coast.