USDOT Weighs In on Gulf Coast Service USDOT Weighs In on Gulf Coast Service Written by Marybeth Luczak, Executive Editor More than 300 people rode Amtrak’s Gulf Coast Inspection Train (pictured) from New Orleans to Jacksonville, Fla., in February 2016, as part of an ongoing effort to restore passenger rail service along the Gulf Coast, which was disrupted by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and never resumed. (Marc Glucksman, Amtrak) The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) “stands ready” to work with Amtrak, CSX, Norfolk Southern (NS) and other stakeholders to restore “long overdue” passenger service between New Orleans and Mobile, it wrote in a recent Surface Transportation Board (STB) filing.