In the form of a revived Amtrak passenger service between Mobile and New Orleans, Mardi Gras will come twice daily to the Port City starting on Monday. Elected leaders and officials from all levels celebrated the new train line Saturday, and said it will be up to Gulf Coast residents to keep the good times – and the train – rolling.

An Amtrak train full of passengers came to a halt outside the Arthur R. Outlaw Mobile Convention Center on Water Street just after noon for the first time in roughly two decades. Hurricane Katrina’s devastating landfall wiped out passenger rail service connecting Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, and it took years for leaders in those states to come together and bring the infrastructure back.

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