Kay Kell: The Behind-the-Scenes Queen of Amtrak's New Mardi Gras Line
Kay Kell at Union Station in New Orleans on August 16th, the morning of the Mardi Gras train's inaugural run. Photo by Ellis Anderson
2025Amtrak's new Mardi Gras line between New Orleans and Mobile is reintroducing the French Quarter to our coastal neighbors and rejuvenating Gulf Coast culture. Meet the woman who worked for 30 years to manifest the dream.
- by Ellis Anderson
This column is underwritten in part by the New Orleans Storyville Museum
The popularity of the new Amtrak Mardi Gras line between New Orleans and Mobile has surprised both naysayers and cheerleaders alike – despite three decades of feasibility studies and marketing research.
According to Knox Ross, chairman of the Southern Rail Commission (SRC), ridership since the line launched in mid-August has far exceeded the most optimistic projections.
“It’s unbelievable,” Ross said. “It’s absolutely incredible how well it’s doing.”
An Amtrak crew member at Union Station in New Orlenas is ready to roll on the inaugural run of the Mardi Gras line on August 18. Photo by Ellis Anderson
A few days later, on August 18, Passengers line up in Mobile for the first public run of the new Amtrak Mardi Gras line to New Orleans. Photo by Ellis Anderson
On October 9, Amtrak reported:
19,000 people rode the train in the first six weeks, an average of 420 per day – more than double the projected estimates.
Customer satisfaction scores exceeded national averages across the board, with riders praising the comfort, convenience and on-board experience.
Demand for tickets on Saints home game weekends has been so high, Amtrak has already added an additional 60 seats every Friday, Saturday and Sunday the team plays in New Orleans.
Foremost among the train’s celebrating supporters is the Southern Rail Commission. The entire 15 years Ross has been a member, the organization has been the project’s foremost advocate – again and again challenging seemingly insurmountable odds.
Knox Ross, chairman of the Southern Rail Commission, getting ready to board the inaugural run of the new Mardi Gras line in New Orleans, August 16. Photo by Ellis Anderson
So during the jubilant August 16 inaugural run from New Orleans to Mobile, when the train filled with dignitaries and public officials was met by cheering throngs at every stop along the route, Ross read acknowledgements from a long list he carried.
He thanked Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker, Louisiana Lt. Governor Billy Nungesser, Amtrak, governors, federal and state agencies, state transportation officials, mayors and city councils. He gave shout-outs to his fellow SRC members - a body of 17 volunteers appointed by the governors of Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi.
And then he introduced Kay Kell – almost as if she were queen of the Mardi Gras line.
Which she is, after a fashion. The tall, elegant woman dressed in a white business suit even sported a small rhinestone crown for the occasion, a gag gift from her friends in Bay St. Louis.
Kay Kell with Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker at Union Station in New Orleans before boarding the train for the inaugural run of the Mardi Gras line on August 16. Photo by Ellis Andersone
L to R: Former BSL Councilman and Shoofly Magazine publisher, Wendy McDonald, former president of Coastal MS Tourism Nikki Moon, Kay Kell and Bay St. Louis Councilperson Nancy Moynan. Photo by Ellis Anderson
Repeatedly that day, Ross explained how Kell had served as a SRC Commissioner for more than three decades, long years spent tirelessly working to reestablish passenger rail service along the coast between New Orleans and Mobile.
“She wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer,” Ross said. “Without Kay, this train wouldn’t be running today, because there were lots of times we should have thrown in the towel and walked away.
“Kay wouldn’t let us. She stayed strong and never wavered. All along, she was the rock.”
A few days later, Kell admitted that she had doubts that the train would run – until the moment it pulled out of New Orleans that first day.
“It sounds a little crazy,” Kell said. “I kept wondering what was going to happen to stop us. We’d faced so many years of almost getting there and then running up against brick walls at the last minute. It seemed impossible that it was actually going to happen. But it did!
“All day, everybody was so happy, it was surreal and hard to believe: All the people at the stops and the little kids and the bands and the costumes. They were really ready.”
“And I certainly was!” she said, laughing.
The crowd at Gulfport, MS for the inaugural run, video by FQJThe crowd at Pascagoula, MS for the inaugural run, video by FQJKell’s involvement with trains began in the early '90s when she was city clerk and director of administration for Bay St. Louis. Passenger trains had played an enormous role in the history of the small coastal town, about an hour east of New Orleans.
In the mid-1800s – thanks to “modern” rail travel – “the Bay” became a summer refuge and eventually a bedroom community for city dwellers seeking a more bucolic lifestyle. Businessmen were whisked into New Orleans each workday and back to their families on the coast each night. Some even purchased their own luxury chairs for the club car.
The original Bay St. Louis depot. Courtesy Hancock County Historical Society
A 1928 Christmas card the L&N line sent to regular train commuters who traveled between Bay St. Louis and New Orleans. Courtesy the Hancock County Historical Society
On weekends, droves of New Orleanians would catch the train over to stay at the homes of family or friends, or at one of the town’s numerous hotels or rooming houses. After a few days of rejuvenation, they’d board the Sunday afternoon train back to the city.
One of the many hotels in Bay St. Louis that catered to New Orleans weekenders and vacationers who arrived by train. Courtesy Hancock County Historical Society
After WWII, the country moved to fervently embrace the automobile, and passenger rail travel declined nationwide. The line between New Orleans and the Mississippi Coast stopped running in 1971 after continuous service for more than a century.
For the next 50 years, daily commutes between New Orleans and the coast were possible only in a personal car – with the exception of two brief periods of train service.
In 1984, the World’s Fair in New Orleans prompted the short-lived establishment of a Gulf Coast Limited service. One train ran each day. Each morning, the Limited headed from Mobile to New Orleans and it returned to Mobile in the evening. While the train was popular, Mississippi decided to stop subsidizing it and the service shut down after only eight months.
In the early '90s, plans were in the works for the Sunset Limited – which ran between Los Angeles and New Orleans – to be extended to Jacksonville, Florida. Kell became involved when Bay officials learned that neighboring Waveland - which was smaller and didn’t have a depot - was slated for a stop on the route instead of Bay St. Louis.
“We had just renovated the depot,” Kell said. “So we were able to land the stop pretty quickly. In the course of things, I was appointed to the SRC by Governor Kirk Fordice.”
The second Bay St. Louis depot, built in 1921. Photo by John Scafidi, courtesy the Hancock County Historical Society
The second Bay St. Louis depot, built in 1921, renovated in 1989 and updated recently.
“I didn’t have a love of trains at first,” Kell said, smiling. “I had a love of Bay St. Louis. But I fell in love with trains going to the SRC meetings and seeing the passion of the commissioners. Somehow, I got hooked too.”
The extended service started in 1993, but delays were inevitable on the Sunset – which had to travel more than 2000 miles to get to Bay St. Louis and was scheduled to arrive in the middle of the night, at best. Occasionally, the train was a whole day late. The Sunset schedule was soon cut to three days a week, making commutes and day trips impossible.
“Then I started wondering about reviving a limited service between Mobile and New Orleans,” remembered Kell. “The shorter the line, the more reliable the service would be.”
Other commissioners agreed and in 1996, after three years of forming alliances, a new Gulf Coast Limited launched. Kay was chairman of the SRC by then and signed the contract with Amtrak.
The "ribbon cutting" of the 1996 Gulf Coast Limited, photo courtesy Kay Kell
The "ribbon cutting" of the 1996 Gulf Coast Limited, photo courtesy Kay Kell
The second Limited’s schedule was much the same as the first – a train left Mobile for New Orleans in the mornings and returned in the evenings. The project began with the money for a three-month trial run. Since ridership was much higher than expected, the Limited’s run was extended for another six months. It seemed like a slam-dunk success.
Waiting to board the inaugural run of the 1996 Gulf Coast Limited train to New Orleans. Photo courtesy Kay Kell
Children aboard the inaugural run of the Gulf Coast Limited, 1996. Photo courtesy Kay Kell
Kay Kell aboard the inaugural run of the Gulf Coast Limited, 1996. Photo courtesy Kay Kell
When the trial ended, federal appropriation would have kept the Limited on track, however the states declined to chip in – despite overwhelming public support. The service ended nine months after it began, in March 1997.
“It was horrible,” Kell says, remembering. “We kept thinking if we can make it successful officials are going to support it. But it didn’t happen. None of the three states put up the money to continue it, even though it was successful.”
Demoralized by the cancellation of the ‘96 Gulf Coast Limited, the SRC regrouped under Kell, pulled up their bootstraps and began a new campaign. At the time, they had no idea that it’d be nearly 30 years before another limited service could be established.
The Sunset continued its three times a week run across the coast until 2005, when Hurricane Katrina interrupted the service between New Orleans and Jacksonville. Soon after, it was announced the eastern extension of the Sunset had been permanently discontinued.
For the next 20 years, no passenger trains at all would roll down the tracks of the Mississippi Gulf Coast between New Orleans and Mobile.
***
According to Knox Ross, the most challenging, and often fatal, part of starting a new Amtrak line – even a relatively short one like the Mardi Gras – is the number of players in the game.
Amtrak and the Federal Railroad Administration have to be willing, as does the US Department of Transportation. Members of Congress have to be on board, as well as the governors of the states that benefit and the states’ departments of transportation.
The vast amount of cooperation needed between the various entities and agencies creates a high stakes 3-D chess game – with politics and personalities weighing down the pieces.
Ross says that Kay Kell’s super power is her ability to bring the players to the table, while being open to their ideas and perspectives. She could get the pieces moving.
Kell, white jacket near window, at a meeting of the Southern Rail Commission in Mobile, June 2025.
To Kell, these skills come naturally, developed and honed when she was just a child.
Born in Shreveport, Louisiana, Kell’s father worked on pipelines, so the family relocated frequently. “We moved maybe 40 times before I graduated high school,” Kell said. “It was always hard being the new kid.
“But while there are all kinds of studies now that show the negative impacts of kids frequently moving, it taught me that there are lots of different people and different ways to do things – and they’re all O.K. That part really helped me.”
Kay Kell as manager of Pascagoula
Later, after a divorce left Kell the single mother of two daughters, she worked in the day and went to college part time for seven years, graduating USM with degrees in Computer Science and Accounting. In 1989, she left her job as firm manager and senior accountant of a prestigious CPA firm to join the administration of newly elected Bay St. Louis mayor Eddie Favre.
Kell’s reputation as a can-do administrator spread further when she followed that service with a stint as city manager of Picayune (1996 - 2000) and then at Pascagoula, from 2001 - 2010. She led the coast ship-building city through the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and its long recovery, overseeing myriad grant-funded rebuilding projects.
“Kay commands respect,” Ross said. “She’s widely known, all across the coast. They trust her too. They know she isn’t going to ask for something frivolous that she doesn’t believe in. So they listen. And she listens to them.
Ross continued, joking, "If you need to talk to someone, you get Kay to make the call because they’ll answer her."
In 2022, officials participated in a presentation about the new rail service between New Orleans and Mobile (l-r): BSL Mayor Mike Favre; Nikki Moon; Todd Stennis with Amtrak; Kay Kell with the Southern Rail Commission; Marc Magliari with Amtrak; Knox Ross with the Southern Rail Commission; John Bender with Amtrak; US DOT Deputy Secretary of Transportation Polly Trottenberg; Chris Vignes representing Senator Roger Wicker.
Elizabeth Stevens served as a SRC member for eight years when she was president and CEO of Downtown Mobile Alliance. She agreed with Ross.
“Kay is well-respected and has a gentle firmness about staying focused...,” Stevens said. “She was always giving credit to other people, but in reality, the leadership in Mississippi helped make [the restoration of the service] happen and she was certainly at the apex of that leadership group.”
That widespread respect is reflected in the awards that Kell has won through the years. Most recently, on October 3rd at the Mississippi Governor’s Conference on Tourism, Kell – also a Coastal Mississippi Tourism commissioner – garnered the Community Volunteer Award:
With a career spanning decades of public service… Kay has left an indelible mark on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, most noticeably through her unwavering advocacy for the return of passenger rail service.
Kay Kell with members of the One Coast Tourism team in the lobby of Hotel Monteleone the evening before the inaugural run of the Mardi Gras line.
As Stevens predicted, when Kell was interviewed for this piece, she was quick to deflect credit for her own role in the new train line.
“If you had to write a list of all the people who have helped out through all the years, I can’t even begin to imagine how long it would be,” Kell said.
“It took so long because all the entities would come together,” she continued, “and then one would run off. Or the political climate would change. Or a supporter would lose an election. Or an official would say, ‘I’ve got nothing against trains, but I’d rather build more highways.’
“But every time it fell apart, someone would step up. A lot of times, it was Senator Wicker. Other times, it’d be a person you wouldn’t expect who’d pick up the ball and carry it forward.”
Senator Roger Wicker, who has worked on getting the rail service established for years, addressed the crowd in New Orleans before the inaugural run, praising the bipartisanship that made it happen. He noted that Republicans, Democrats and Independents had made it happen. “This is what America ought to be like!” he declared to rousing applause.
Many people talk of the train line being restored. Indeed, the term has been used in this story. But the Mardi Gras is actually a whole new ball game.
Every morning, a train leaves each of the two anchor cities, New Orleans and Mobile. Each evening, they return to their home cities, making for a total of four runs each day. For the first time since the mid-1900s, people can commute or day-trip from either Mobile and New Orleans.
Live in New Orleans and want to spend the day at the Bay St. Louis beach? You can leave at 7:35 in the morning, be in the Bay by 9am and catch the return train that evening. You’ll be back in the Crescent City a little after 8pm.
Want to indulge in a long French Quarter lunch and a free music performance at the Jazz Museum – but live in Mobile? Board the early train and wind up in New Orleans just after 11am. The 5:30 return run whisks you along in scenic comfort and you arrive at Mobile soon after 9pm. You can even have a glass of wine along the way.
The public doesn’t need to be sold on day-tripping on the coast and foregoing the arduous I-10 drive. Communities on the Mardi Gras route are already seeing significant upticks in shopping, dining and hotel stays, while social media posts from coast residents enthusiastically share accounts of visits to the French Quarter.
Because suddenly, the train’s become the darling of social media. The Friends of Amtrak - Mardi Gras Service FB page – which was originally started by activist/advocate Bryan Fuenmayor four years ago to support the service reestablishment – had 3,000 members when the train began running in mid-August.
The page now has 28,000 members who enthusiastically post up to 100 times a day.
Bryan Fuenmayor in July with the new Amtrak sign by the Mobile Convention Center.
Knox Ross gleefully notes that if the current ridership trend continues - the line could serve 150,000 passengers in its first year – more than double the rosiest of forecasts.
Kay Kell and Knox Ross in Bay St. Louis during a July announcement tour across the coast. Ross said that Kell "kept the lights on this [project] when nobody else did... I just want you all to remember when that train pulls up, you think of Kay." Photo by Gregg Martel
But after so many years of genteel fighting, Kell’s not ready to let down her guard yet. She remembers when popularity and success didn’t save the Limited line.
“The huge elephant in the room is the question: Why should the government fund Amtrak?” Kell said, referring to the government subsidies passenger rail receives.
“Government funding is crucial in every other form of transportation - automobiles, buses, ferries and air travel. But for whatever reason, some people argue against subsidies for trains.
“Yet – for now – here we are. We have funding for three years. Hopefully, in that time, the train will become such an indispensable and valuable part of coast life again, that losing it would be unthinkable.
“In the meantime, I’ll be joyous every time I board.”
Kay Kell and BSL Councilman Nancy Moynan greet the Mardi Gras train on its first public run from Mobile to New Orleans, August 18. 2025. Photo by Ellis Anderson
