Amtrak’s restoration of service along the Gulf Coast next month will not include a stop in Atmore, despite the city’s status as Alabama’s “rail welcome center.”

Still, city officials are determined to have the nation’s passenger rail service come back someday to a city that, more than any other in Alabama, celebrates its rail heritage with an annual fall festival.

“We are fully supportive,” said Atmore Mayor Shawn Lassiter, who took office on June 1, at a news conference hosted by Amtrak announcing the start date, fares and schedule for the new Amtrak Mardi Gras Service between Mobile and New Orleans.

“We’ve been looking at it for years,” he said. “We miss it. We want it back.”

Port concerns

However, standing in the way is a powerful entity in Alabama – the Alabama State Port Authority with support from the Mobile City Council.

Considered Mobile’s largest economic engine, the port has established a limit of not having trains traverse north of downtown Mobile in exchange for its support of Amtrak’s return to the Gulf Coast.

The Mobile City Council, last year, approved a three-year agreement with Amtrak to support the initial operations of the Mardi Gras Service with a clause added that allows the city to terminate the agreement if service is expanded beyond a Mobile-to-New Orleans route.

Maggie Oliver, spokesperson with the Alabama Port Authority, said it’s important for all parties involved in Amtrak’s return to the Gulf Coast to work on improving the existing rail line. That includes moving forward on agreements that were included in a $178 million federal grant awarded to Amtrak nearly two years ago.

“While we recognize there is broader regional interest in expanding passenger rail around the Gulf Coast, multiple infrastructure projects along the current service route still need to be completed,” Oliver said. “All parties should remain focused on executing the grant at hand before contemplating a service that extends beyond Mobile.”

In recent years, Port Authority CEO John Driscoll has said the only way he could support a longer route is if there is an additional rail traffic study performed that analyzes the impact of passenger rail to the port’s operations. The study should also look at additional infrastructure that would be required to accommodate both freight and passenger trains.

No such study has taken place or appears to be in the process of occurring.

The port has long been concerned over adding Amtrak trains through the crowded freight train movement that officials say happens routinely into and out of Siebert Yard. The yard is north of downtown Mobile and is a major freight rail corridor serving the Alabama State Docks.

Jerry Gehman, surface transportation director with the City of Atmore and a former member of the Southern Rail Commission, said that previous long-distance trains that operated through Mobile and connected to Atmore did not create any backups or headaches within Siebert Yard.

The Sunset Limited was the last long-distance train that operated through Atmore, connecting west to Mobile, before service ceased after Hurricane Katrina damaged the line in 2005.

“It never created an issue in the Port of Mobile, ever,” Gehman said. “Nothing has changed.”

Florida interest

Gehman acknowledged that there is interest throughout the Florida Panhandle for their cities to get connected to Amtrak, which presumably would mean a connection from Atmore into Pensacola east toward Tallahassee and Jacksonville.

Pensacola has applied for grants to support Amtrak restoration. Last year, Walton and Okaloosa counties both signed onto letters expressing support to bring Amtrak service to Northwest Florida.

There is support among Florida state lawmakers as well. Legislation introduced this spring calls for including Florida in the Southern Rail Commission. The commission, formed in 1982 to advocate for passenger rail service, includes the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.

“They are petitioning Amtrak to resume services,” Gehman said about the Florida cities and counties. “It’s not just us. We need another form of transportation.”

Last year, the Federal Railroad Administration proposed a map of possible routes worth studying that included a new passenger line from Dallas/Fort Worth to Miami through New Orleans to Mobile and into Northwest Florida.

Another route had Jacksonville connecting to Dallas/Fort Worth through Georgia and into Alabama along the Crescent line that includes stops in Anniston, Birmingham and Tuscaloosa.

Gehman said that Atmore, a city of about 8,300 residents, is the only city with a train stop within Alabama without passenger rail service. He said that moving the route east would benefit rural Alabama and would provide Atmore and Escambia County with a new economic generator.

For Atmore, restoring rail service could be economically significant, as the city has among the highest poverty rates in Alabama. Its median household income is $33,104, which is only slightly more than half of the state’s average of $62,027.

“The only real stop in the state along Amtrak’s route not served now is Atmore,” Gehman said. “We say that moving it east benefits rural Alabama.”

Funding potential

Efforts to extend the route eastward gained momentum a few years ago during President Joe Biden’s administration after the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) set aside $66 billion for Amtrak.

The momentum could continue even with Biden no longer in office. President Donald Trump’s administration, earlier this month, released a fiscal year 2026 budget for Amtrak that included similar levels of funding than in prior years. The budget request calls for an increase from $1.29 billion to $1.58 billion to support Amtrak’s national network, while defunding the Northeast Corridor from $1.14 billion to $850 million.

The funding request also includes boosting the Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) program from $100 million last fiscal year to $500 million. The same CRISI program is financing the $178 million of improvements along the Gulf Coast rail line, including $77 million viewed as “critical” to the Port Authority’s operations.

Knox Ross, chairman of the Southern Rail Commission, said any effort to move the train beyond downtown Mobile will require working closely with the port.

The Port Authority, along with CSX and Norfolk Southern – the two freight operators along the Gulf Coast route – were a party in a lawsuit filed by Amtrak in 2021, that was before the U.S. Surface Transportation Board. At the time, the Port Authority was vocally opposed to adding passenger trains to the route.

An agreement involving all sides was reached in late 2022.

“We respect their issues,” Ross said about the Port Authority’s concerns about taking the trains east of downtown Mobile adjacent to Cooper Riverside Park. “I think (an eastward expansion) is something that will be driven by Florida, and from Jacksonville back to the west. They’ve expressed interest in that.”

He added, “It’s something worth investigating carefully in expressing the needs and wishes of the port.”