Business community supports Amtrak in Mobile, chamber president Bradley Bryne says

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) – The plan to bring Amtrak to Mobile is hanging by a thread. As FOX10 News reported earlier this week, the proposal doesn’t have enough votes on the city council.

But Mobile Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Bradley Byrne made clear today that it’s got the support of the business community.

Under the proposal, Amtrak would run two trains a day from Mobile to New Orleans, and two a day in the other direction. There would be four stops in Mississippi in between.

But it requires a little more than $3 million over three years from Alabama.

Byrne said the project is on the “one-yard line.” He noted that the Alabama Port Authority has agreed to cover a third of that and that Gov. Kay Ivey has expressed willingness to do the same.

Byrne said the benefits go beyond having the passenger rail service.

“We also get $170 million worth of improvement to train tracks between here and New Orleans. And that benefits our freight folks. That’s why the port’s so for it. So this is like a win-win-win-win for this community,” he said,

Three council members, though, have expressed concern about the much-larger cost after the initial three-year period.

Copyright 2024 WALA. All rights reserved.