London-based journalist Jordan Reynolds hops on the twice-daily Amtrak Mardi Gras service to explore the region’s vibrant music, history and food.
Photo courtesy of PA Media.
Dozens of birds fly over the still bayou as the train rushes past, leaving nothing but blue skies over the marshland. In no time this serene scene is replaced by bustling cityscape as I arrive in New Orleans.
It’s the first time since Hurricane Katrina devastated the region 20 years ago that a passenger train is running along the Gulf Coast from Mobile, Alabama, to New Orleans in Louisiana.
The new twice-daily Amtrak Mardi Gras service – named after the carnival celebration that takes over the cities every February – is allowing passengers to travel across the states for a day trip or more, from Mobile, stopping at Pascagoula, Biloxi, Gulfport and Bay St Louis in Mississippi, and New Orleans.
Amtrak – the US’s national railway – launched the new service in the Deep South in August 2025 and it has already caught the interest of locals. A shop worker and Uber driver tell me they have never been on a train before, while a couple are visiting Mobile from New Orleans for the first time in decades after discovering the new train line.
Mobile, in south-west Alabama, has a walkable downtown, with restaurants and bars dotted along Dauphin Street, while Biloxi is known for its casinos and Bay St Louis is the place to go for a party atmosphere. New Orleans has something for everyone with its architecture, live music around every corner, as well as being home to the National WWII Museum.
Every February into March, Mobile and New Orleans are transformed for Mardi Gras as daily parades fill the streets with colourful floats, costumes, music and dancing.
Remnants of past celebrations catch my eye throughout both cities – from museums dedicated to costumes and floats to leftover beaded necklaces caught in trees.
