Move over, beads and king cake — Mardi Gras is hitting the rails.

The long-standing Gulf Coast rivalry between Mobile and New Orleans over who threw the first Mardi Gras party now has a new twist: both cities will soon be bookending a brand-new Amtrak line named in honor of the raucous pre-Lenten celebration.

Amtrak announced Thursday that its upcoming twice-daily service between Mobile and New Orleans — with four stops in coastal Mississippi — will be dubbed the “Mardi Gras Service.”

Amtrak President Roger Harris called the name a “natural choice” that captures the region’s “distinctive culture.”

“Travel should be about more than just getting somewhere,” Harris said. “Our goal is to have some of that festive Mardi Gras feeling on every trip, sharing the culture of the Gulf Coast region while connecting with the rest of the Amtrak network.”

Arriving soon

The party-on-rails is expected to roll out in June, though no official start date, fares, or schedules have been released. Amtrak says more details will be posted on Amtrak.com “in a few weeks.”

“Mobile and New Orleans have always shared a rich cultural heritage and renewing Amtrak service will strengthen our ties to the Crescent City and the Mississippi Gulf Coast,” Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson said. “We are so excited to welcome new visitors from those communities when the Amtrak Mardi Gras Service launches later this year. It will be an asset to our citizens and another enhancement to Mobile’s growing downtown waterfront.”

Public officials say the naming goes beyond a “shared cultural heritage,” by claiming it will bolster the economies in both cities and along the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

“This new service strengthens our city’s ties with our neighbors across the Gulf while creating jobs and expanding opportunity throughout the district and the State of Alabama,” said U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures, D-Mobile.

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said route’s name also “represents renewed investment in our infrastructure, our tourism industry, and the everyday mobility of our residents.”

“The return of intercity Amtrak service between New Orleans and Mobile is a monumental win for our region,” she said. “This is how we move our city and our region forward – together.”

In Mississippi, Mardi Gras doesn’t produce nearly the same Carnival season festivities and traditions as the holiday does in New Orleans and Mobile. But officials in Mississippi recognized that the holiday represents a closely shared connection along the Gulf Coast.

The route includes stops in Pascagoula, Biloxi, Gulfport and Bay St. Louis.

“Though the Mississippi Gulf Coast is heavily influence by neighboring Mobile and New Orleans, each of Mississippi’s coastal cities has its own unique charm and traditions, especially when it comes to our two great passions – festivities and food,” said Charles Busby, Mississippi Transportation Commissioner for the Southern Transportation District.

The route ends at Union Station in New Orleans, where Amtrak passengers can continue with same-day connections in both directions aboard the City of New Orleans trains between New Orleans and Chicago via Memphis. Amtrak Mardi Gras Service guests will also be able to make next-day connections in New Orleans to Amtrak Crescent trains to and from New York via Atlanta, and Amtrak Sunset Limited trains to and from Los Angeles via Tucson, San Antonio and Houston.

Long-time coming

Amtrak’s Mardi Gras Service is a revival, of sorts, of the Gulf Coast passenger rail connection that existed with the long-distance Sunset Limited. Amtrak service has been suspended along the Gulf Coast since Hurricane Katrina damaged much of the line nearly 20 years ago.

The storm destroyed a former train station that serviced the Amtrak service in downtown Mobile. Work crews are currently on the scene at the same spot adjacent to Cooper Riverside Park, building the train stop that will service passengers in Mobile.

The path to getting the train officially named has been a long and often arduous one for passenger rail supporters who have spent years getting support from state governments, freight rail operators and the Alabama State Port Authority.

A much-celebrated inspection train ran between New Orleans and Mobile back in 2016, more than nine years ago.

Disputes involving Amtrak and a host of entities led to a stalling of the project, and a legal proceeding before the U.S. Surface Transportation Board.

That dispute pitted Amtrak against the freight operators along the line – CSX, Norfolk Southern — and the Alabama State Port Authority, which expressed concerns over the impact of additional passenger trains to their operations north of downtown Mobile. But an agreement involving all the sides in the case was reached in November 2022, enabling the process to begin toward getting the service started.

Also slowing the process down was gathering the financial support from the three states connected to the route — Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. In Alabama, unlike in Mississippi and Louisiana, much of that support came from the Mobile City Council, which voted in August to provide an operational subsidy for three years.

“This is a step forward in the restoration process of Gulf Coast rail,” said U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, a Mississippi Republican who has been the biggest champion for the project in Congress. “I am grateful to Amtrak for helping restore this line after nearly two decades of no service.”

Knox Ross, chairman of the Southern Rail Commission, a passenger rail advocacy group that has played a critical role in getting the project to move forward, said he’s ready to see the route become a reality.

“It’s incredibly exciting to announce the name for this new service that will have such a positive impact in our three states,” he said.