The Wait Is Over. Amtrak Mardi Gras Service begins today, August 16, 2025, with an inagural run, bringing to a partial close the service outage on this segment of the "Sunset Limited" since 2005,. Revenue service for the public will commence on Monday, August 18, 2025. Prior to Hurricane Katrina, in August 2005, the line was suspended between Jacksonville, Florida, and San Antonio, Texas. Though it was restored to New Orleans, Louisiana afterward, points east have been without passenger rail service for almost two decades. At the time of these photos, on February 18, 2016, this was the only Amtrak train to have traveled these tracks since 2005. The Mardi Gras train will make two daily round-trips between New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama, but there is no near-term plan to restore service between Mobile and Jacksonville.

Full resolution pics and prints: https://www.riverrailphoto.com/amtrak