Amtrak Expansion Plan

[west point]

Tadman: You hit the nail on the head about Pensacola. I would add Panama City, and Apalachicola Florida as well. All three of these cities are very high traffic destinations for persons from TN, AL, GA , NC, and SC. At one time there was Passenger service to all three from Atlanta and other locations. The trains except Pensacola were all convoluted as Atlanta - Montgomery - Flomaton - Pensacola maintained thru the early 1960s. ATL - Dothan - PC even had a sleeper at one time.

[west point]

Tadman: You hit the nail on the head about Pensacola. I would add Panama City, and Apalachicola Florida as well. All three of these cities are very high traffic destinations for persons from TN, AL, GA , NC, and SC. At one time there was Passenger service to all three from Atlanta and other locations. The trains except Pensacola were all convoluted as Atlanta - Montgomery - Flomaton - Pensacola maintained thru the early 1960s. ATL - Dothan - PC even had a sleeper at one time.

[Tadman]

So the traffic is certainly there, but the hurdles are getting a family of 3-5 out of their minivan or Tahoe and into a train. Quite often there is a truckload literally of inflatable stuff, beer, canoes, powerboats on a trailer, etc... So it's hard to sell that concept because the large car is very efficient and effective at moving five people plus their very copious gear from a suburb of Nashville or Atlanta to Panama City or Pensacola.

[David Benton]

Where you have families in carloads , you generally have single travellers too. Kids , kids friends , Granparents, Mum or Dad heading back to work early , etc . I once knew a pilot on a small seaside based airline , and he said that's what kept them going . Business travellers were the cream on top .

[Pensyfan19]

Feels odd having a post in this topic considering everything that's going on with Amtrak as we speak, but it's good to know that there is still some support for Amtrak.

https://www.wdbj7.com/2020/10/14/plans- ... n-the-nrv/

CHRISTIANSBURG, Va. (WDBJ) - The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors has unanimously voted to reaffirm its support of working to bring Amtrak service to the New River Valley as one of its legislative priorities for 2021.

It comes as Amtrak continues to struggle financially due to COVID-19.

Amtrak has been an option for transportation in Roanoke for about three years. Late last week, the rail service announced it is requesting nearly $5 billion from Congress, as ridership has been a quarter of pre-COVID levels.

“Our view is someday at some point this country is going to have COVID in its rear-view mirrors, and at that point things will be back to normal and hopefully we’ll have rail service in the New River Valley,” said New River Valley Passenger Rail spokesperson Larry Hincker.