The new train service will connect Mobile to New Orleans with four stops in coastal Mississippi, returning rail service to the Gulf Coast nearly 20 years after Hurricane Katrina.

Amtrak's Mardi Gras Service passenger rail ensures trains will arrive just in time for New Orleans Saints football season.

The service, dubbed the Mardi Gras Service, launches on August 18. “Passengers will be able to make same-day connections to Amtrak’s City of New Orleans line to Chicago and next-day transfers to the Crescent line to New York and the Sunset Limited to Los Angeles.”