New Gulf Coast service (New Orleans - Mobile and Baton Rouge)

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There has been another collision between a test train and a vehicle. This was at Mobile on Wednesday. Worse, this time there was a fatality in the car. Looks like the car burst into flame upon impact.

When you look at this crossing on Google Maps, it's absolutely astounding that this could occur. Drivers can see the train for at least a mile in either direction. I wonder if they will find something in the victim's blood that shouldn't have been there?
 
When you look at this crossing on Google Maps, it's absolutely astounding that this could occur. Drivers can see the train for at least a mile in either direction. I wonder if they will find something in the victim's blood that shouldn't have been there?
Witnesses say he drove around the gate trying to beat the train. I'm wondering whether the train was traveling at 89 79 mph, or at least significantly faster than the freights that go thru there. The driver may have gambled with freights in the past and won, but met his match in Amtrak.
 
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Anybody; anybody who tries to beat a train by going around gates that are flashing red lights - gates are DOWN, but they attempt to go around them - deserve what they get. Morons. I don't get it; how many times does it have to be said, how many times featured on news stories complete with tragic consequence videos as it happens. Trains can't stop in time to save your stupid self. And yet, there are still idiot truck drivers, and morons going around crossing gates. No sympathy here, sorry.
 
Tried to book from Gulfport (GPT) to NOL various dates to early October, no joy. I assume management hasn't decided on a start date. So won't allow the potential schedule to be accessed. I guess the passenger speed signaling and track upgrades are still in process. Haven't heard if the test/training runs are still being made.
 
Tried to book from Gulfport (GPT) to NOL various dates to early October, no joy. I assume management hasn't decided on a start date. So won't allow the potential schedule to be accessed. I guess the passenger speed signaling and track upgrades are still in process. Haven't heard if the test/training runs are still being made.
It's Amtrak, so it may be 2024 before you can Book a ticket to ride on an actual Revenue Train!
 
Darwin Award finalist.
Lessons from SunRail: Drivers are surprised when a passenger rail is active at 'their' crossing. Rail crossings need the strongest possible markings, signals and quad gates especially when new passenger service begins. There's federal rail safety money to do that. The local DOT needs to get busy.
 
Lessons from SunRail: Drivers are surprised when a passenger rail is active at 'their' crossing. Rail crossings need the strongest possible markings, signals and quad gates especially when new passenger service begins. There's federal rail safety money to do that. The local DOT needs to get busy.
Yeah, it's up to the local governments to request the funds. Haven't heard of anyone implementing quad gates where it wasn't part of a "Quiet Zone" implementation, though.

Had s similar situation here, where what had been a 10 mph freight line with infrequent movements was turned into a 79 mph passenger mainline with 12 scheduled trains a day (the Point Defiance Cutoff). The city, Lakewood, elected to sue to stop it or reduce train speeds. They lost. They didn't put in quad gates, though. I guess they thought lawyers were a better safety appliance.
 
Any word yet if Amtrak Thruway Motorcoach service will operate from the train's eastern terminus?

Thruway service shuttling passengers to/from Florida points could be a game changer for this new line.
 
Just looking around the FDOT and local north Florida planning groups, It's hard to find anything that shows the planners are even discussing passenger rail resumption across N. Florida. Nothing specific about passenger rail in the FDOT long range plan. Nothing in the Tallahassee TPO, communter only in JAX. Hello! is anybody home?
 
Had s similar situation here, where what had been a 10 mph freight line with infrequent movements was turned into a 79 mph passenger mainline with 12 scheduled trains a day (the Point Defiance Cutoff). The city, Lakewood, elected to sue to stop it or reduce train speeds. They lost. They didn't put in quad gates, though. I guess they thought lawyers were a better safety appliance.
Been tried before in other places. For many years there were train speed restrictions in numerous urban areas. Many were in areas where speeds would be low anyway, but some were very onerous. Generally the railroads tolerated them partly trying to be a good neighbor, and partly because they realized that there were numerous other areas that the various government entities could use to aggravate the situation. Finally, and I think it was in California one of the railroad companies took it to the Federal Courts and local speed limits were determined to be an interference with interstate commerce and therefore unconstitutional.
 
Any word yet if Amtrak Thruway Motorcoach service will operate from the train's eastern terminus?

Thruway service shuttling passengers to/from Florida points could be a game changer for this new line.
Why would that be the case? I suspect that the passenger demand analysis they did shows that there's sufficient demand between New Orleans and Mobile to justify the service. I could see that a connecting bus to Pensacola might be useful, but it's not critical to the success of this corridor. As for longer trips, I can't see how taking a bus from Jacksonville to Mobile, then transferring to the train would be competitive with just taking a through bus all the way from Jacksonville. And given the condition of the tracks east of Mobile, a New-Orleans-Jacksonville through train would be so much slower than a bus that it wouldn't be competitive at all.
 
Just looking around the FDOT and local north Florida planning groups, It's hard to find anything that shows the planners are even discussing passenger rail resumption across N. Florida. Nothing specific about passenger rail in the FDOT long range plan. Nothing in the Tallahassee TPO, communter only in JAX. Hello! is anybody home?
I don’t know how many times we have to mention this, but NOL-JAX is at best on the back burner. It is in the long range plan of the Southern Rail Commission. But there is absolutely no project actively working on it. There are higher priority things to work on in Florida.
 
Been tried before in other places. For many years there were train speed restrictions in numerous urban areas. Many were in areas where speeds would be low anyway, but some were very onerous. Generally the railroads tolerated them partly trying to be a good neighbor, and partly because they realized that there were numerous other areas that the various government entities could use to aggravate the situation. Finally, and I think it was in California one of the railroad companies took it to the Federal Courts and local speed limits were determined to be an interference with interstate commerce and therefore unconstitutional.
It was the opinion of OPUC officials when I worked for Oregon DOT that extreme train speed restrictions just encouraged motorists to try and beat trains.
 
Yeah, it's up to the local governments to request the funds. Haven't heard of anyone implementing quad gates where it wasn't part of a "Quiet Zone" implementation, though.

Had s similar situation here, where what had been a 10 mph freight line with infrequent movements was turned into a 79 mph passenger mainline with 12 scheduled trains a day (the Point Defiance Cutoff). The city, Lakewood, elected to sue to stop it or reduce train speeds. They lost. They didn't put in quad gates, though. I guess they thought lawyers were a better safety appliance.
NC has a good many crossings with quad gates and are not quiet zones. Downtown Greensboro, NC just west of the Amtrak station on Elm street is one example. Easy to see on Google Street view.
 
Amtrak is working hard to restore passenger train service between New Orleans, the Mississippi Gulf Coast and Mobile later this year, officials said Friday.

“Looking forward to successes and ribbon cuttings,” Nicole Bucich, Amtrak vice president of network development, said at the quarterly meeting of the Southern Rail Commission in Bay St. Louis.

Read more at: https://www.sunherald.com/news/business/article276255796.html#storylink=cpy
 
Wish the train was available. Currently, the US-90 bridge over the Pearl River is closed and one side of the I-10 bridge is closed. To avoid a two-hour backup between LA & MS, drivers are taking a 20 mile detour via Picayune but that route has become backed up as well. Fortunately, I have no need to go to Louisiana right now.

https://www.nola.com/news/traffic/h...cle_89816fbc-1ffa-11ee-8f6f-4fefed76dd0b.html
 
The Baton Rouge service has been allocated an extra $20.5mil in state funding.
https://www.nola.com/news/politics/...cle_4d1bb7f2-3d1f-11ee-8ee8-8b9f5d2a44f8.html
Earlier this year, Louisiana reached a deal with the federal government to end a long-winding and contentious battle over misspent grant money that was part of the Road Home program, aimed at helping victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.

As part of the deal, Louisiana would only have to pay $32.5 million back to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development—a dramatic decrease from $300 million it could have owed.

But this summer, HUD unexpectedly told Gov. John Bel Edwards’ administration that it could keep $20.5 million of that money, as long as the state spent it to help people in parishes most impacted by the devastating 2005 storms.

Edwards’ administration has decided to spend that money on the long-planned but slow-moving New Orleans-Baton Rouge passenger rail line.
 
The latest news of the New Orleans/Mobile restoration, The Mardi Gras Express.
While the GM&O station, actually M&O for many years prior to merger of the GM&N + M&O, that is Mobile and Ohio, is a beautiful building it was built facing south as a terminal station for lines to the north. Understanding that and looking at the current railroad lines in Mobile, it is most unfortunately not well positioned for the Mobile to New Orleans service, much as I would love to see it being reused as a Passenger train station. (Best I recall, the last passenger train out of there was about 1953.)
 
Anybody; anybody who tries to beat a train by going around gates that are flashing red lights - gates are DOWN, but they attempt to go around them - deserve what they get. Morons. ... No sympathy here, sorry.
I agree with you, but....
The frustrating part of gates is that they go down what seems like ages before the train gets to the crossing, I know 20 seconds is the minimum required but it seems like it is closer to 30 seconds sometimes. And a freight train can take a LOOONNNNGGG ARGHHH! TIME to go by.
So people were irritated by the length of time they would have to wait behind the crossing arms so some bozos try to go around the arms, so the people in charge lengthened the time that the arms are down, thereby further "encouraging" the behavior that they wished to curtail...
I have never tried to beat the arms or a train, but I kind of understand the frustration that leads to it, especially with regards to freight trains.
 
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