Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson’s office has forwarded a lease agreement to Amtrak that would allow the train service to build a stop in downtown Mobile to support a new passenger rail route, a city spokeswoman confirmed Friday.

The agreement, which an Amtrak spokesman confirmed they have received, is viewed as the final bureaucratic step needed to be completed before a twice-daily service is restored along the Gulf Coast connecting Mobile with New Orleans. The route also includes four coastal Mississippi stops – Pascagoula, Biloxi, Gulfport and Bay St. Louis.

“Our expectation is to get it executed quickly and go before the council for approval,” said Candace Cooksey, spokeswoman for the city.

Cooksey declined to provide details about the train stop, other than to confirm it’s a platform and not a structural building like a traditional train station. She said that the construction of a train station would be considered after the passenger rail service is restored, expected sometime in 2024.

It will take five votes on the seven-member Mobile City Council to authorize the lease agreement. The city-owned property is located in downtown Mobile adjacent to Cooper Riverside Park next to Water Street and close to the Arthur R. Outlaw Mobile Convention Center.

Five votes is no guarantee. At least two council members – Joel Daves and Ben Reynolds – have voiced concerns about restoring the Amtrak service.

Cooksey said the council could consider the matter as early as its Nov. 14 meeting.

David Clark, president & CEO with Visit Mobile – an Alabama representative with the Southern Rail Commission – said in September that the council will have to also reconsider a vote on the city’s share of a Restoration & Enhancement (R&E) grant that a previous council voted on in early 2020 to support, but which has likely since change.

The council approved $3 million over three years to support the Amtrak service. The revised R&E grant is expected to support a project that will last for six years.

Discussions to bring Amtrak back to the Gulf Coast has gone on for years. The route was expected to be restored this year after Amtrak, the Alabama State Port Authority and the two freight operators along the route – CSX and Norfolk Southern – reached a settlement in a case before the U.S. Surface Transportation Board about one year ago.

Progress has slowed while all sides waited on a $178.4 million Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety (CRISI) program to pay for capital improvements along the route. That grant was authorized by the Federal Railroad Administration in September.

Non-federal matching funds come from $23.1 million from the states of Louisiana and Mississippi; $15.6 million from CSX, Norfolk Southern and the Port; and $6.2 million from Amtrak. Alabama is not a participant.