Mobile gets on board
The Alabama city sees train service as a chance to add more to downtown.
Mobile has a plan to build a downtown for people, starting with an embrace of the Mardi Gras Amtrak service that local organizations spent years fighting to restore.
The details: Mobile has unveiled a plan to reshape its downtown skyline and open a largely industrial stretch of waterfront to residents and visitors, per The Advocate. đź”’
- Amtrak has carried more than 100,000 passengers to Mobile in less than a year, delivering travelers to a platform across from downtown hotels and restaurants.
- New Mayor Spiro Cheriogotis wants to add food trucks and a rooftop restaurant near the waterfront stop, an area long defined by a jail, warehouses and salvage yards.
- The city hopes to increase annual visitors to 5 million from 3.5 million over the next several years.
The bigger picture: Amtrak’s New Orleans-to-Mobile service has attracted about twice the ridership expected, prompting Mobile to reconsider the possibilities of a train that port officials once tried to block, even as other cities along the route welcomed it.
Amtrak officials and the Southern Rail Commission are interested in extending passenger service to Baton Rouge, creating another way to reach New Orleans and the wider Gulf Coast. Gov. Jeff Landry’s administration would have to lead the effort.
The bottom line: Leaders elsewhere along the Gulf Coast understood early that welcoming the train, rather than fighting it, could create opportunities for people and businesses. Mobile has now seen the results—and started dreaming bigger.