In Brief:
- Amtrak restored Gulf Coast service this summer, two decades after it was halted by Hurricane Katrina.
- Gulf Coast cities in Mississippi are hoping for a tourism boost.
- Ridership is outpacing Amtrak’s projections in the first weeks of service.
The last time Amtrak ran a passenger train between New Orleans and Mobile, Ala., it was a one-off demonstration train in 2016, carrying rail advocates, congresspeople, and local officials hoping to build momentum for restoring a service that had ended with Hurricane Katrina.
For that occasion, Andrew Gilich, the mayor of Biloxi, Miss., provided dozens of pounds of crawfish to serve to his fellow passengers as they rolled along the Gulf Coast, waving to residents gathered near the former stations. Crawfish weren’t in season this August, when Amtrak officially started twice-a-day service along the route, just a few days shy of Katrina’s 20th anniversary. So Gilich, whom everybody calls “Fofo,” opted instead for about 60 pounds of Gulf shrimp, “boiled and seasoned to perfection,” as he joined many of the same advocates from nine years ago for the inaugural trip.
“It is so relaxing to be on that train. You see an eagle. You see an osprey,” says Gilich, who, at 77 years old, has been Biloxi’s mayor since 2015. “This just adds to the opportunity to visit our coast.”…