Progress Toward Train Stop, Larger Airport In Mobile

AL.com has reported that Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson’s office has forwarded a lease agreement to Amtrak that would allow the train service to build a stop in Downtown Mobile to support a new passenger rail route. The agreement is viewed as the final bureaucratic step before twice-daily service is restored along the Gulf Coast. “Our expectation is to get it executed quickly and go before the council for approval,” said Candace Cooksey, spokeswoman for the city. Cooksey added that the train stop will be a platform, instead of a building, with its construction to be considered after passenger rail service is restored, which is expected in 2024. The Mobile City Council is expected to consider authorizing the lease agreement on the city-owned downtown property adjacent to Cooper Riverside Park next to Water Street and close to the convention center as early as November 14. Progress on restoration of the passenger line has slowed while waiting on a $178.4 million in Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements Program funding to pay for capital improvements along the route. That grant was authorized by the Federal Railroad Administration in September.

AL.com also reported on a recent 100-acre property swap involving the Mobile Airport Authority (MAA), University of South Alabama Foundation and Alabama State Port Authority. MAA is set to receive 100 acres of property formerly owned by the foundation near Mobile Bay on the east side of the future $350-million five-gate terminal and parking garage for the Brookley Aeroplex. The property is south of the future Brookley by the Bay. “This piece of property for us is probably the most important parcel we could purchase because of its location to the runway, east of the airport,” said Chris Curry, MAA president. It is to be used for “large aviation and general aviation” business, he added. In return, the Mobile County Industrial Development Board, which owned and marketed the former foundation property, is set to receive 100 acres of mostly wooded property near Tanner Williams Road within the 3,000 acres of MAA property at the Mobile Regional Airport in West Mobile. Also included in the transaction was the Port Authority’s acquisition of approximately 43 acres in Brookley for approximately $5 million. This property will be used for a future Port of Mobile expansion.