A federal board overseeing the nation’s railways blasted Amtrak Wednesday for a lack of progress in getting its passenger rail service restored on the Gulf Coast, and ordered the parties involved in an ongoing case before them to provide a detailed status report in 30 days.

U.S. Surface Transportation Board members, during the hearing in Washington, D.C., repeatedly expressed disappointment over the inability to get Amtrak trains operating between Mobile and New Orleans more than 14 months after a confidential agreement was reached in a highly watched case with national implications over the future of passenger rail service.

“It doesn’t take 14 months to negotiate a lease if you wanted to reach an agreement,” said Martin Oberman, chairman of the STB. “What is going on?”

‘High priority’

Oberman expressed frustrations with a lack of information the parties involved in the case — Amtrak, CSX Transportation, Norfolk Southern and the Alabama State Port Authority – provided in a status update filed to the STB earlier this month, saying he has learned more about case through stories reported by the Alabama Media Group on AL.com.

He also chastised Amtrak for claiming the Gulf Coast project remains a “high priority” despite a lack of conclusion over negotiations on a required lease agreement to provide a train stop in Mobile, and without securing an operating agreement with the City of Mobile.

A loose timetable for restarting the service set for October 2024 also seemed in doubt. A representative with CSX Transportation, one of two freight operators along the route, said it could take about one year to build a 3,000-foot layover track in downtown Mobile to move Amtrak trains off the main line.

“It’s hard for me to sit here and say the trains will be operating in October,” Oberman said. “It leaves a lot to be desired to bring this case to conclusion. If people really wanted to make a deal … it doesn’t take 15 months to make a deal.”

Representatives with the four parties in the case attended the hearing, including an attorney with the Alabama State Port Authority that is facilitating negotiations between Amtrak and Mobile city officials.

The City of Mobile, despite an invitation from Oberman, chose not to participate.

Amtrak and the City of Mobile have repeatedly said that negotiations between the two are progressing, though no timetable has been given on when the layover track, a train stop near Cooper Riverside Park and an operational agreement with the Mobile City Council will be finalized.

“A high priority has resulted in 14 months,” Oberman said. “I’m glad it’s not a low priority.”

Getting a train stop established in Mobile is viewed as the key element toward restarting service along the Gulf Coast for the first time since Hurricane Katrina heavily damaged the line in 2005.

“Why should the public feel any assurance that you’ll ever reach an agreement with Mobile?” Oberman said. “It’s extraordinarily frustrating. We are talking about a piece of concrete you step on. Quite frankly, I’m skeptical. I think you owe the public (an explanation).”

Amtrak, in its filing with the STB on Feb. 1, said they hope to reach a conclusion in the case by May 1, at which time they would ask it to be dismissed. Amtrak brought the case against the freight operators – CSX and Norfolk Southern – in March 2021, out of concern over a lack of negotiations to get the project started. The Alabama Port Authority, which once vehemently opposed the passenger rail project, was later added as a party to the case.

Oberman also expressed dissatisfaction with the settlement agreement’s confidential nature, saying that the case involves multiple public bodies spending public money on a project that is part of a $178 million federal grant awarded to Amtrak in September.

“I think the public has a right to transparency,” Oberman said. “I would encourage, at some point in this process, that the parties make some point of transparency. There is an overuse of confidentially, generally, in my view.”

Operating agreements

Other STB members blasted Amtrak for the lack of progress.

Karen Hedlund instructed the rail operator to never bring another case before the STB without securing its operating agreements from the public bodies that are part of a project.

Hedlund said the focus on hearings before the STB in 2022 focused primarily on the capital costs needed to get the Gulf Coast line prepared for Amtrak trains.

Amtrak attorney Jessica Ring Amunson said the rail operator has agreements in place with the State of Louisiana, but that an agreement in Mississippi was not finalized. There is no agreement in Alabama.

The Mobile City Council, in early 2020, voted 6-1 to authorize $3 million in city tax money to support the operations of the service to help match a federal grant. But terms of that approval are viewed as outdated, and a new operating agreement needs to be approved by the council.

“You are dealing with an issue that should have been resolved since before you filed your papers (with the STB, in March 2021),” Hedlund said, who then rattled off Amtrak’s plans for a nationwide expansion that includes doubling the number of state-supported routes in 15 years.

“Amtrak is making no little plans, but it has to figure out how to implement them,” she said.

There is no guarantee the council will approve a revised operating agreement. At least two of the seven city council members have expressed public doubt over supporting Amtrak with a public subsidy. It takes a supermajority of five council members to approve most agenda items that come before the council.

Frustrations

STB board member Patrick Fuchs criticized Amtrak for implying that the Federal Railroad Administration was to blame for the slowdown in progress after Amunson said that the FRA was charged with administering other grant agreements throughout the country.

The capital improvement along the Gulf Coast line would be financed largely through the $178 million federal grant administered by the FRA. But some of that work is contingent on Amtrak finalizing its negotiations with the City of Mobile.

“I think it’s insulting to the agency that is giving you a lot of money,” said Fuchs.

Amunson said her remarks did not imply criticism at the FRA, adding that “obviously, Amtrak wants these funds so it can get this service started. That’s the whole reason Amtrak brought this proceeding.”

Other STB members remained perplexed over why the train service wasn’t operating yet. As proposed, the Gulf Coast route would include twice-daily service between Mobile and New Orleans with stops in four coastal Mississippi cities – Pascagoula, Biloxi, Gulfport and Bay St. Louis.

Board member Robert Primus invoked the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to end segregation “with all deliberate speed.” The addition of that phrase added a vagueness to the landmark ruling that allowed segregationists the ability to organize resistance to integration.

“We all know what that mean,” Primus said. “We don’t want to have that happen here. We want to see service up and running. I respect the right of negotiation and I’m hopeful what is happening behind the scenes and within closed doors is progress. But I join (my fellow STB members) in saying, ‘is it too long?’”

Primus said the STB did not want not want to reassemble for another hearing.

“I’ve heard from people this morning who say we’ll start in 2024,” Primus said. “I’ve underlined that. We’re just into this year, but as we go into the year and the trains are not running, we’d hate to call you back in and other representatives and ask, ‘Why not?’ We need to get to the bottom of it.”

He added, “We’re past due for getting it done. Now it’s time to stop shaking hands and start moving trains.”