Amtrak Tennessee Proposals: Memphis - Nashville - Knoxville - Chattanooga - Atlanta

[Arborwayfan]

Sounds good if somebody wants to put up the money.

[Jeff Smith]

I am admittedly curious to what they want to do in terms of ATL to NAS. The old Floridian route would mean ATL, ATN, BHM, DEC & NAS. A non-Floridian route would be via Marietta / Chattanooga / Murfreesboro / Nashville.

Not sure what they'd do.

Its also a little mysterious how and where they would turn and crew and stock those Atlanta-Nashville trains.

I'm not sure if ATL is a crew-base, but they do occasionally annul trains south of there for various reasons. If they can add trains there, any type of train (corridor or LD), it might make it more economical/efficient to put a crew base there. ATL could serve as a hub as has been mentioned, with trains down to Savannah, up to Charlotte perhaps, and Tennessee. I live and work in Warner Robins, GA, and a train through Macon makes sense going on down via WR to Valdosta and Florida along Norfolk Southern. Of course, who pays?

[Jeff Smith]

I'm curious where the station in Atlanta is going to be located. With all the trains everyone is proposing to and from Atlanta it had better be a big one. As you mentioned a yard to service those trains will also be needed. Is the downtown Terminal Station location still available or has it been built on? And where is the station in Nashville going to be? The old Union Station at 10th and Broadway now shows to be a hotel. I'm guessing a new station and support yard will have to be built.

One of the problems with adding a bunch of regional trains is the support yards and stations are long gone.

That's been a sore point for a while in Atlanta. They've had several proposals, including "the gulch" downtown. The current station is wholly inadequate, and they need to sort out a mess west of the current station that causes delays.

[east point]

ATL not a crew base. Crescent covered by CLT and Meridian, The station mess? Everyone I know has given up. There were several proposals . Doraville GM plant location that seems gone, Austell which now probably will not work as its not on CSX. CSX old Tilford hump yard ? Not the best part of town and road access not good. The old Terminal station location is now a Federal court house. The Gulch close to the old Terminal station would need a balloon track to speed trains out do not know if possible ? The Georgia HSR mentions a station near the gulch but terminating at the ATL airport. Southeast of the present station possible but at a very high price. Several tracks would need to span I_75. Would need a balloon track as well

[Roadgeek Adam]

ATL not a crew base. Crescent covered by CLT and Meridian, The station mess? Everyone I know has given up. There were several proposals . Doraville GM plant location that seems gone, Austell which now probably will not work as its not on CSX. CSX old Tilford hump yard ? Not the best part of town and road access not good.

I don't like using neighborhood as a justification for anything negative. (This is some bias because I prefer those neighborhoods over the hipster neighborhoods). The major problem there is access to downtown Atlanta and access to build a reasonable station. It would make a nice layover spot, but there's no way a station could be housed there. I realize this isn't a solution, but a new station at the Northside Drive area would probably be an improvement.

[east point]

ATL not a crew base. Crescent covered by CLT and Meridian, The station mess? Everyone I know has given up. There were several proposals . Doraville GM plant location that seems gone, Austell which now probably will not work as its not on CSX. CSX old Tilford hump yard ? Not the best part of town and road access not good. The old Terminal station location is now a Federal court house. The Gulch close to the old Terminal station would need a balloon track to speed trains out do not know if possible ? The Georgia HSR mentions a station near the gulch but terminating at the ATL airport. Southeast of the present station possible but at a very high price. Several tracks would need to span I_75. Would need a balloon track as well

There is unconfirmed talk of a terminal at the old GaRR Hulsey yard. That would go along with one of the Ga DOT HSR proposals.

[gokeefe]

I'm 'impressed' that in spite of everything else going on there has been no improvement at all in ATL. At some point (probably when Charlotte opens) I think the local business community is going to decide they've had it. Until then it's "Frankly my dear I don't give a damn" for Amtrak.

[mtuandrew]

Amtrak ought to propose to Georgia an ATL-SAV-JAX train. Might change the state and local opinion on where the city station should be.

[Bob Roberts]

I'm 'impressed' that in spite of everything else going on there has been no improvement at all in ATL. At some point (probably when Charlotte opens) I think the local business community is going to decide they've had it. Until then it's "Frankly my dear I don't give a damn" for Amtrak.

I would like to think that Atlanta came close to embracing regional rail in the Amazon HQ2 proposal. Atlanta was pitching their Gulch site to Amazon (right over the downtown wye). [IGNORE THIS FAULTY MEMORY -->} Unfortunately Atlanta didn't have much time for soul searching about what went wrong with Amazon, Norfolk Southern quickly announced they would move their new HQ to the Gulch -- NS made it clear they had no interest in passenger rail. [oops]

[mtuandrew]

I would like to think that Atlanta came close to embracing regional rail in the Amazon HQ2 proposal. Atlanta was pitching their Gulch site to Amazon (right over the downtown wye). Unfortunately Atlanta didn't have much time for soul searching about what went wrong with Amazon, Norfolk Southern quickly announced they would move their new HQ to the Gulch -- NS made it clear they had no interest in passenger rail.

I’ll leave this question up to the Georgians here, but it seems that with enough zeroes on the end of a check, wouldn’t NS be mightily interested in passenger rail? That check might come from either a governmental agency or from the Virgin Trains USA group, of course.

[east point]

Roberts NS headquarters are being built on west Peachtree and Spring street near GaTech 2 miles from gulch.

[Jeff Smith]

Amtrak ought to propose to Georgia an ATL-SAV-JAX train. Might change the state and local opinion on where the city station should be.

The routing would be interesting. The Nancy Hanks IIRC traversed Southern Railways from the Central of Georgia station in Savannah via Macon Terminal Station to Atlanta Terminal Station. There are other options as well that are more populated.

[Pensyfan19]

We got a route and stations this time!

https://www.wkrn.com/news/nashville-202 ... ssion=true

[gokeefe]

Interesting technique to build support for the route. Every state legislator in those communities will now be getting calls, "When is the train coming?", "Don't cancel my train!" Etc etc. It's as though the service already exists. It changes the dynamic for the politicians from "Please say yes" to "Don't vote no". Powerful dynamic.

[ryanch]

There's now a bill in the Tennessee legislature:
https://atlanta.curbed.com/2020/2/20/21 ... -rail-gdot

And reported rumors of an Amtrak effort to buy Hulsey Yard in Atlanta from CSX as a terminal site:
https://atlantaintownpaper.com/2020/02/ ... expansion/

While the source for the Amtrak effort to buy the yard is rumors "on community message boards," which is pretty weak, the article reports that CSX is actually attempting to sell the yard, and that the Atlanta council is pushing them to do something (it's not clear what though: "keep the community's interests in mind.")