Maybe I missed the post that specified how long it would take to get from NO to Mobile. Would they depart morning and evening or just do a turnaround.As far as Amtrak from Baton Rouge to NO - not a lot of sights to see I wouldn’t think but I would rather take it than deal with Interstate 10 sometimes it’s like Indy 500 out there.
New Gulf Coast Amtrak service (New Orleans - Mobile and Baton Rouge)
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Could be...but I bet whatever they want from Mobile, is also available in New Orleans...
Proposed running time is 3’23” with a departure from each end in the morning and afternoon.
As to the food (AUers seem focused on food!) I’d vote for Beignets with my morning coffee, Po’Boy with an Atibi beer for lunch, and Gumbo in the evening with perhaps a Hurricane for a nightcap.
west point
Engineer
Could it be that the Southern Rail Commission has noted the success of Downeaster food service and insists that same apply to NOL <> MOB?
Beignets,po boys and gumbo- if it’s good I’ll take that train just for the food lol
The entire route is in one region, noted for its cuisine and seafood, so it would make a lot of sense to have local specialties.
I like gumbo, but I've read some people have issues with okra.
I had some jambalaya in NO once and it was so good I had to learn how to make it later. Fortunately they have 'Zatarains' at the grocery store. Just boil and add whatever ingredients you like.
I've never tried frozen or reheated begniets and I don't think they will fry them fresh on board the train, but who knows.
Jambalaya will be easy, so will po boys, maybe even gumbo. Reheated beignets- I don’t know- microwave makes them tough- could be NO style bread pudding- that heats up well especially with the pecan praline or whiskey sauce.First they need to get this train running.Does anyone know what the scenery will be like on the ride from NO to Mobile.
NativeSon5859
Conductor
Scenery gets very interesting about 15min after you pass through the CSX yard, going through the Rigolets (marsh lands) and a few very impressive long drawbridges and trestles along the way…including Rigolets Pass, St. Louis Bay, and Biloxi Bay. I’d say it’s very interesting all the way until Pascagoula, then mostly forest running to Mobile. Overall, lots to see for a short route.
Beignets need to be served up fresh from the fryer; they get chewy real fast.
The FRA Safety Map. . . https://fragis.fra.dot.gov/GISFRASafety/ . . .will give you an overhead view of the route when you deselect all but Passenger Rail in the Layers drop down menu and select Imagery in the Basemaps menu. Using this will let you know which side of the train to look for something of interest.
I Vote for the Bourbon/ Chocolate Pecan Pie they used to serve on the City of New Orleans!
( even if it was made in Chicago!
)You are right when you say "First they need to get this train running".
The trip is only a little over three hours and Amtrak has enough to deal with just getting everything set up. Maybe it would be better overall to encourage people to get food before they board the train.
Agree with you tgstubbs1
JamesWhitcombRiley
Train Attendant
I'd be about 95% sure if there's funding there will be a food contract. This train is supported by Louisiana and Mississippi for multiple reasons.
By the way I checked Wanderu and there are 22 buses each way between Baton Rouge and New Orleans on a weekday, mainly Greyhound. I read the KCS/CP/CN merger required one daily Amtrak train, but now they are talking two and using a grant to fix the 10mph spillway bridge, benefiting both railroads. (I'm guessing that was a negotiation.) Last I knew this was a heavily used freight corridor, though there are two other parallel routes, one on the other side of the river.
One other fact people might not know, much of the parallel interstate highway route is on trestle, moreso than the US highway (Airline), because the interstate was built over the lake shore, and wetter ground. If anyone's interested in the history of the ports, legend goes the Old Bridge in Baton Rouge was built by Huey Long low enough to stop ocean going ships from transiting further up the Mississippi. But most seaport operations are in New Orleans, with the intracoastal perpendicular to the river at BR dominated in this region by commercial boats and barges. Pleasure craft tend to the Tennessee Tombigbee system at Mobile. And in general, access to the Gulf for visitors such as beachgoers is all about MS, AL, FL, as well as TX.
Mark Twain wrote about getting lost piloting a boat between BR and NO on the Mississippi. When the fog lifted he was in a sugarcane field.
By the way I checked Wanderu and there are 22 buses each way between Baton Rouge and New Orleans on a weekday, mainly Greyhound. I read the KCS/CP/CN merger required one daily Amtrak train, but now they are talking two and using a grant to fix the 10mph spillway bridge, benefiting both railroads. (I'm guessing that was a negotiation.) Last I knew this was a heavily used freight corridor, though there are two other parallel routes, one on the other side of the river.
One other fact people might not know, much of the parallel interstate highway route is on trestle, moreso than the US highway (Airline), because the interstate was built over the lake shore, and wetter ground. If anyone's interested in the history of the ports, legend goes the Old Bridge in Baton Rouge was built by Huey Long low enough to stop ocean going ships from transiting further up the Mississippi. But most seaport operations are in New Orleans, with the intracoastal perpendicular to the river at BR dominated in this region by commercial boats and barges. Pleasure craft tend to the Tennessee Tombigbee system at Mobile. And in general, access to the Gulf for visitors such as beachgoers is all about MS, AL, FL, as well as TX.
Mark Twain wrote about getting lost piloting a boat between BR and NO on the Mississippi. When the fog lifted he was in a sugarcane field.
Interesting never knew that.Not originally from Louisiana so everytime I learn something I didn’t know about It- I’m sorry the folks there are something else. Makes me chuckle. I take Airline Hwy to NO most the time anyway because Interstate 10 is crazy- didn’t know built on trestle.Does this mean Amtrak will also run parallel?
Do you recall what date you searched? I just looked up September 20 and found about six buses. Many of the buses make more than one stop in either New Orleans or Baton Rouge or both so more than six listings show up on Wanderu but looking at the times and stop locations, I think it's actually just six trips.
JamesWhitcombRiley
Train Attendant
Correct, 6 daily bus trips BR-NO, I was double counting various pick-up locations in the cities.
The parallel routes, highway and rail, are between the river and the lake, and another set on the other side of the river. Wikipedia says the name Airline Highway is like "air" used in fast train routes, but was later appropriate to the two airports. A large airport between the two cities was never built. That stretch of I-10 had more trucks hauling elaborate, almost bizarre, heavy equipment than I've seen anywhere else. After Hurricane Katrina in NO, BR grew a lot, and I'm not surprised traffic is heavy now.
Same story all over this country, there's more people and more traffic, in areas with any growth. And those areas are glommed around cities, making it hard to build more highways. (Adding lanes improves flow for a while but makes the driving worse.) In my world in VA, I can almost clock it on the interstate each year the economy is growing, which is most years. Trains are not some special interest, but becoming a necessity. Or at least pretty attractive even in car-centric places like Virginia, when the driving seems too crazy. It's no surprise Brightline is doing well Miami - West Palm Beach, if you've ever driven that stretch of I-95. Talk about personality.
Very encouraging Louisiana and Mississippi, and Mobile locally I think, are supporting this train financially. I'm resisting saying anything about Louisiana as a place, since it's really not that different, but the people there are very informed on governmental matters. It's second only to sports, they say. I guess one interesting thing is a few states used petro-dollars to set up trusts to benefit education back in the day: Texas and Louisiana, and I believe California did as well by some mechanism. The "resource curse" of impoverished mining and drilling states was apparently already a lesson known. It's a long way from building casinos.
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Metra Electric Rider
Conductor
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Any further info (or link) to this? I did a quick search and nothing came up quickly.
You're right. The Rail Passenger NARP hotline says they will have local food on the train.
I guess the big obstacle is the PTC section needed for the station area.
NativeSon5859
Conductor
It’s not even in the station area - it’s in the CSX yard. Amtrak actually owns the few miles of track leading into the station. Then it’s the NS Back Belt for a few miles before switching over to CSX. Surprised that hasn’t been done yet but of course CSX is dragging this along as long as it can.
JamesWhitcombRiley
Train Attendant
The Airline Highway, see Wikipedia. For the airport, who knows. I recall reading about various mega regional airport proposals in the U.S. from roughly the 1960s to 1980s, and I'm pretty sure this was one of them. They tended to be between two metropolitan areas, and far from both. I did see that New Orleans Lakefront Airport claimed to be the largest airport in the country, in the days of Amelia Earhart.