The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development has about two weeks to draft its initial plans for a proposed passenger rail line between Baton Rouge and New Orleans.
Bill 764, which the legislature passed last year, requires DOTD to prepare the scope, schedule and budget to obtain all necessary permits and approvals for passenger rail operations to begin. The law further states that DOTD is to submit these plans to the Legislature’s Joint Transportation Committee prior to the start of its regular session on April 10, 2023.
The joint transport committee met on Monday but did not have the railway project on its agenda and appeared largely unaware of the upcoming deadline. DOTD Secretary Eric Kalivoda spent most of the meeting presenting updates on other projects, such as the Interstate 10 expansion at Baton Rouge.
It wasn’t until members of the Sierra Club mentioned the deadline in their testimony that some lawmakers learned the committee had to reconvene before the 19-day session opened.
Sierra Club members read a list of questions and concerns about the rail project.
“Behind the scenes, we just don’t see the movement that we would expect,” said Angelle Bradford, a volunteer at the Sierra Club’s Delta chapter.
Joint Committee Chairman Sen. Patrick McMath, R-Covington, asked DOTD officials to help him review video of Monday’s testimony to record information requested by the Sierra Club. McMath said he wanted to “see if we can’t bring up every single item for the next meeting that we seem to have now.”
DOTD officials told lawmakers they plan to file a motion to schedule the committee meeting later that day.
When some lawmakers questioned about the rail proposal earlier during Monday’s hearing, Kalivoda said many important details remained to be settled. The state is conducting an environmental study that is not expected to be completed before the end of the year, he added.
Last week, federal authorities approved a long-awaited merger of the Kansas City Southern and Canadian Pacific rail freight companies, now known as Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC). CPKC owns the freight track between Baton Rouge and New Orleans.
Some have envisioned the project as a European-style commuter train capable of ferrying people back and forth to work multiple times a day, using clean fuels and modern innovations to ease congestion on I-10.
Even the Louisiana state legislature, through Law 764, stated that “now is an ideal time to explore the possibility of electrifying passenger rail.”
But the ideas officials have circulated so far are less innovative and more outdated.
The project could turn out to be the standard intercity Amtrak line already running through New Orleans. So far, Amtrak has been the only name that state officials have used in discussions about who might provide and operate the trains.
Even the US Surface Transportation Board, which approved the CPKC merger, mentioned the New Orleans-Baton Rouge proposal as an Amtrak project in its press release.
However, Amtrak does not operate commuter rail lines; It only offers intercity and long-distance trips.
Officials want to use CPKC’s existing freight track rather than spend money building a new line for passenger service, and the company has so far agreed to at least one round trip per day – insufficient for commuter service.
“If we’re going to have a successful commuter train between Baton Rouge and New Orleans … one or two trains isn’t enough,” Kalivoda told the committee. “You’re going to have to have more surgeries than that.”
He also said that in order to attract real estate investment along the route, the state must have a long-term guarantee for rail transport for at least 20 or 30 years. The development around the stations is necessary to establish them as a real commuter railway.
“The annual budget allocations can’t be about whether you continue the ministry or not,” Kalivoda said. “Real estate developers will not invest money in such an operation.”
The biggest challenge will be subsidizing long-term operations, as ticket sales are not enough to cover operating costs, he said.
“The novelty part will wear out very quickly,” Kalivoda said. “At first everyone wants to ride the train, but the novelty part comes quickly… Are you going to have a service that supports that long-term ridership so people can use it for business and for access to the job?”
This story was originally published by the Louisiana Illuminator.
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