The Mardi Gras Alabama-New Orleans railway is again – and our prepare knowledgeable hops on board

When Hurricane Katrina devastated the American shoreline alongside the Gulf of Mexico in 2005 it took out bridges and sections of railway between New Orleans in Louisiana, the full of life dwelling of jazz music, and the colonial metropolis of Cell, Alabama.

Now, 20 years on, the 145-mile line with a journey time of 3hr 43m throughout marshland alongside the Deep South’s coast has reopened – and it’s proving well-liked, with two good-value providers a day (£18 a technique).

Already an additional carriage is being added on some weekends, and its success is being seen as a post-Katrina rebirth.

You hear the ‘Mardi Gras Service’, operated by America’s nationwide prepare firm Amtrak, earlier than you see it. We’re boarding in charming Cell, the unique dwelling of the Mardi Gras celebrations.

The prepare horns have been blasting within the morning – as they had been the evening earlier than as we sampled oysters on town’s vibrant Dauphin Road – the sound echoing throughout Cell’s grid of antebellum homes.

We ascend the steps to the prepare by the lazily flowing River Cell, the place two big crimson, white and blue locomotives are hooked up to 3 gleaming stainless-steel carriages: Two ‘coach’ class (customary) carriages and one enterprise class.

A eating space serves sizzling canine, breakfast burritos, Michelob beers and Hurricane cocktails (a punchy, crimson, fruity New Orleans concoction that includes rum).

You’re quickly rolling out of Cell – at 6.05am – with the dawn casting golden mild throughout pine bushes alongside the river.

The prepare has two ‘coach’ class (customary) carriages obtainable for passengers

The views throughout the journey are particularly picturesque, Tom says

We’re in enterprise for this trip, heading for town of Biloxi in Mississippi, the primary of two deliberate stops to New Orleans.

The journey is 1h 18m. It’s a soothing solution to journey, ingesting espresso, the horn blasting recurrently. James, the bow tie-wearing conductor, tells us: ‘I labored throughout [on Amtrak]… Chicago, Michigan, Milwaukee – however that is simply stunning.’

He’s referring particularly to the ultimate stretch alongside the Gulf of Mexico (or ‘Gulf of America’ as President Donald Trump calls it) into New Orleans. 

However first there’s an pleasing day exploring Biloxi, with its bustling casinos and Floor Zero Blues Membership, co-owned by actor Morgan Freeman.

Biloxi was hit laborious by Katrina, with 6,000-plus buildings destroyed and no less than 53 lives misplaced. The town ‘seemed like a bomb had hit it’, mentioned one shellshocked resident.

But restoration since then has been staggering. You’ll hardly guess it had been just about worn out twenty years in the past.

We spin onwards, travelling in coach class this time. The prepare rattles forth earlier than stopping 54 minutes later at a sleepy neighbourhood of single-storey homes with rocking chairs on porches resulting in a cluster of live-music seafront bars.

Bay St Louis enjoys fairly seashores, a laid-back environment in addition to the 100 Males Corridor, a former black group corridor and music venue, the place performers have included James Brown and Ray Charles. 

Tom’s journey kicks off in Cell, the unique dwelling of the Mardi Gras celebrations

The seats are snug and enjoyable – and Tom travels in type 

Dwell music remains to be sometimes performed, and it’s a adequate cause to cease within the metropolis – the shrimp tacos on the Blind Tiger bar by the marina in shut second.

The ultimate trip into New Orleans is fascinating – you quickly end up traversing swampland with flickering seabirds, and golden reeds. It’s, fairly merely, great.

When you cross the swamp, you enter New Orleans and watch a metropolis come up – truck depots, concrete vegetation, cheap-looking motels, freeway flyovers, storm surge limitations and levees. 

However then you might be within the dwelling of Mardi Gras. The thrills and spills of the French Quarter await: Hurricane cocktails aplenty… fortunately, no hurricanes for actual.

Tom Chesshyre is the creator of Gradual Trains Round Britain.