The reality of passenger rail service from the Capital City to the Crescent City is taking shape. Baton Rouge Area Foundation Executive VP John Spain said a merger between Kansas City Southern and Canadian Pacific will give CP, who already has a relationship with Amtrak, control of the track.
“So, we’ve got a partner now who’s going to be the future owner probably late this year or early next year when the Surface Transportation Board approves the sale. We have them saying in public we’re going to let you do this,” said Spain.
Spain said Amtrak, who will most likely be the operator of the Baton Rouge to New Orleans route has already met with the governor to express interest and even listed the potential route on their strategic plan. Spain said a track is already in place, but it’s built for freight not passengers, but that shouldn’t be a major obstacle.
“Freight trains run at lower speeds and so there are some infrastructure improvements that have to be made. The infrastructure bill has money about $66-billion with a B for inner-city rail improvements,” said Spain.
With financing in place, the governor, mayors of both Baton Rouge and New Orleans, and parish presidents in between all on board, Spain said the reality of service in 2022 is much brighter for an oncoming train and a trial run of the track could on the agenda very soon.
“Because passenger service hasn’t been on the rail in many, many decades you’ve got to have a train that has equipment on it that will run down and test the track and say what improvements need to be done. So, I think we feel pretty good about this,” said Spain.
Spain said there’s also discussion to expand rail service to include access to the Louis Armstrong International Airport.
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