Though only in operation for one week, Amtrak’s Mardi Gras Service between Mobile and New Orleans has riders looking forward to regular trips and downtown businesses excited for new, steady customers.

Amtrak launched a twice-daily train service connecting the Port City with the Crescent City on Monday, Aug. 18, reviving a mode of transportation that had been absent between the two cities for almost exactly two decades. Hurricane Katrina wiped out passenger rail service connecting Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, and it took years for leaders in those states to come together and bring the infrastructure back.

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