The triumphant return of the US’s Gulf Coast train

Two decades after Hurricane Katrina halted rail service, Amtrak’s new Mardi Gras Service links Mobile and New Orleans, offering travellers coastal views and stories of resilience.

We trundled slowly south out of Mobile, skirting the city’s twinkling river. Lofty high-rises and concrete highways coated in pink morning light gave way to historic shipyards, lush forests and peaceful river communities. Fishermen in boats and children in gardens waved at the train with excitement, the conductor sounding the horn in response.

I was one of the first on board the restored Gulf Coast line, relaunched on 18 August 2025, 20 years after Hurricane Katrina decimated entire coastal communities and wiped out the passenger rail service. Operated by Amtrak and reborn as the Mardi Gras Service – a nod to the pre-Lent traditions celebrated across this former French coast – the new twice-daily service runs between the cosmopolitan waterfront city of Mobile, Alabama, and jazz-infused New Orleans, Louisiana.

As I discovered, it is an almost four-hour journey through one of the country’s most scenic but lesser explored stretches of coast. The train winds through Louisiana’s coastal wetlands east of New Orleans and along Mississippi’s shoreline, a quieter area of butter-coloured beaches, fishing villages and walkable seaside towns, all easily accessible from the four station stops en route: Pascagoula, Biloxi, Gulfport and Bay Saint Louis. 

The morning and evening departures allow for day trips or overnight journeys. However, I opted for a longer adventure, hopping on and off the train with two overnight stops in coastal Mississippi. And while international visitors will likely board in New Orleans, I started at the other end, in Mobile, a port city of wrought iron balconies and live oaks where the US’s first Mardi Gras is said to have taken place in the 1700s.