New Amtrak Station In Birmingham Alabama

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Mike Carlisle

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Does anyone know if they have started working on the new station yet?
 
Does anyone know if they have started working on the new station yet?
If you look up the thread New (BHM) Station that you started in May and folllow the links to the news articles on the new station project, the reports were that "Construction on the new facility is expected to begin by late summer." Which generally means late August or September?
 
Yes, but recently another member was told not to resurrect old threads, but to begin a new thread. And said resurrected thread was locked even though a fine on topic discussion was taking place. So apparently proper protocol is to begin a new thread with the new question.
 
I'm not confidant they're goona do it. A lot of these proposals end in nothing. Birmingham only has the Cresevnt and no state-supported services. I will take it with a grain of salt until I actually see it. The current BHM station is a real hole in the ground.
 
I'm not confidant they're goona do it. A lot of these proposals end in nothing. Birmingham only has the Cresevnt and no state-supported services. I will take it with a grain of salt until I actually see it. The current BHM station is a real hole in the ground.
You're being polite! It's like the entrance to the Black Hole of Calcutta or worse! and the immediate surroundings aren't so hot either
 
Just remembered! Does anyone know what happened to the second L&N station (the small brick one, not the grand original)? You can see where it sat near the entrance to the current "station" - its an empty space now. Always wondered why amtrak didn't take that over.
 
Many years ago I thought the old stations at Trenton, NJ and Springfield, MA qualified as the Black Holes of Calcutta! Trenton was a dive, but I arrived Springfield one day in January, 1973 and could not get out of there fast enough. Going up it was one locomotive hauled coach. Returning it was a through train to New York, 3 cars with a rather nice lounge car on the rear, but filled with cigarette smoke! Just imagine that today!
 
Just remembered! Does anyone know what happened to the second L&N station (the small brick one, not the grand original)? You can see where it sat near the entrance to the current "station" - its an empty space now. Always wondered why amtrak didn't take that over.
The L&N station was situated in such a way that it could not be used by the Crescent.
 
The present station is the remnant of the L&N station built new in 1960, The larger station has been torn down around it. Previously; other business occupied the original size station around what is still left. I have personally witnessed the facility getting smaller through the years.

IMHO the present station is bright and cheerful but does get crowded when one train is late and both are in the station close to the same time. And many of us remember about serious baggege handling problems..Yes, a new station is needed.

Reference an earlier post to Calcutta. If you could only have seen the L&N station before 1959 it would turn your stomach and that is from the good days. Drunken bums all around. Like at certain bus stations.

HIstorically the Southern RR and most others used the big impressive Terminal Station. This would include the the train variously known as the Southerner, Southern Crescent and today, the Crescent.

I believe the L&N station also served the tiny Atlanta, Birmingham and Coast but I am not sure

The short lived Floridian used today's station, i.e. former L&N.

Not sure when the Crescent (or whatever you want to call it} switched from Terminal to what had been the L&N.
 
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Yes, but recently another member was told not to resurrect old threads, but to begin a new thread. And said resurrected thread was locked even though a fine on topic discussion was taking place. So apparently proper protocol is to begin a new thread with the new question.
That was a guest. And I honestly am glad that it was said.
 
Yes, but recently another member was told not to resurrect old threads, but to begin a new thread. And said resurrected thread was locked even though a fine on topic discussion was taking place. So apparently proper protocol is to begin a new thread with the new question.
That was a guest. And I honestly am glad that it was said.
And that particular guest has done the same thing many times, often rehashing what he'd already asked and received answers to in yet another thread anyhow. And far too many people don't realize that he's brought up a long dead thread, and they start answering other posts that no longer need to be answered, since the original OP is long gone.

Bringing back one's own thread for updated news or to ask for updated news isn't considered taboo. But having 6 old threads on Gateway being revived when one could just keep asking new questions in the active one isn't exactly correct.
 
I'm not confidant they're goona do it. A lot of these proposals end in nothing. Birmingham only has the Cresevnt and no state-supported services. I will take it with a grain of salt until I actually see it. The current BHM station is a real hole in the ground.
The new station is not a proposal. If you read the articles linked in the earlier BHM station thread, the city reached an agreement with the FTA to pay a $100K penalty for tearing down the current bus station which is only 14 years old. The project for the new intermodal station is funded with $30 million, $23.6 million from an FTA grant, the remainder from the city. How long it will take to award the contracts and build the station is not stated. But $30 million suggests a fairly sizable project, so it may take a year or two to build the new station once they start construction.
 
Just remembered! Does anyone know what happened to the second L&N station (the small brick one, not the grand original)? You can see where it sat near the entrance to the current "station" - its an empty space now. Always wondered why amtrak didn't take that over.
That one was suspended from service and closed down. It got dilapidated and torn down. I actually saw it getting demolished. I did live in BHM for awhile, I have to say that I've lived lots of places and move a bit too much. ;)

I'm not confidant they're goona do it. A lot of these proposals end in nothing. Birmingham only has the Cresevnt and no state-supported services. I will take it with a grain of salt until I actually see it. The current BHM station is a real hole in the ground.
The new station is not a proposal. If you read the articles linked in the earlier BHM station thread, the city reached an agreement with the FTA to pay a $100K penalty for tearing down the current bus station which is only 14 years old. The project for the new intermodal station is funded with $30 million, $23.6 million from an FTA grant, the remainder from the city. How long it will take to award the contracts and build the station is not stated. But $30 million suggests a fairly sizable project, so it may take a year or two to build the new station once they start construction.
I do hope it actually gets built, but these days I won't trust anything until there's at least some construction. I think it would be a better idea to just connect the station to the Jefferson County bus station with an walkway, but I don't remember the exact location of the bus station in respect to the train platforms.
 
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Just remembered! Does anyone know what happened to the second L&N station (the small brick one, not the grand original)? You can see where it sat near the entrance to the current "station" - its an empty space now. Always wondered why amtrak didn't take that over.
That one was suspended from service and closed down. It got dilapidated and torn down. I actually saw it getting demolished. I did live in BHM for awhile, I have to say that I've lived lots of places and move a bit too much. ;)

Interesting that it went into disrepair... I suppose when it was built (1960) the writing was on the wall for the future of passenger trains so it was built as cheaply as possible? And didn't the bank next door build the station for them as per the agreement of buying the old station for their building?
 
L&N had vacated the main part of the 1960 station by the mid-1970s. It was leased to a law firm, among others. Amtrak operated out of the former baggage room to serve the Floridian. The main building eventually deteriorated beyond the point of economic repair. That said, if the building had been preserved, it could have remained in use for the Crescent today.

L&N was the only railroad to ever use the 1960 station. The prior station on the site, built in 1887, had originally served many railroads; all of them except the L&N and the predecessor of the AB&C moved to Terminal Station upon its opening in 1909. In the 1930s the AB&C moved its passenger stop to Elyton Yard, leaving the L&N as the only user of the 1887 building.

L&N built a new station in Mobile too. It was also used by Amtrak before being flooded by Katrina and demolished thereafter.
 
xyzzy - so the current Amtrak station is still the old baggage room correct? Very interesting.

The history I've been able to find online just stops after the 1960 building is built so I've always wondered why Amtrak ended up where it did.
 
I haven't been to the BHM station in umpteen years. What I can say with certainty is that Amtrak occupied the former baggage room in the 1970s. Whether that's still the case, I don't know.

When the station was designed in the 1950s, the L&N was still operating the Hummingbird, the Pan American, two locals (one formerly the Azalean), and the intermittent South Wind. By Amtrak eve, the Hummingbird and the locals were gone, and the South Wind had been folded into the somewhat truncated Pan American through BHM. Even the 1960 station was too large for that.
 
L&N had vacated the main part of the 1960 station by the mid-1970s. It was leased to a law firm, among others. Amtrak operated out of the former baggage room to serve the Floridian. The main building eventually deteriorated beyond the point of economic repair. That said, if the building had been preserved, it could have remained in use for the Crescent today.
L&N was the only railroad to ever use the 1960 station. The prior station on the site, built in 1887, had originally served many railroads; all of them except the L&N and the predecessor of the AB&C moved to Terminal Station upon its opening in 1909. In the 1930s the AB&C moved its passenger stop to Elyton Yard, leaving the L&N as the only user of the 1887 building.

L&N built a new station in Mobile too. It was also used by Amtrak before being flooded by Katrina and demolished thereafter.
Where is Elyton Yard? It sounds out of town.

I haven't been to the BHM station in umpteen years. What I can say with certainty is that Amtrak occupied the former baggage room in the 1970s. Whether that's still the case, I don't know.
When the station was designed in the 1950s, the L&N was still operating the Hummingbird, the Pan American, two locals (one formerly the Azalean), and the intermittent South Wind. By Amtrak eve, the Hummingbird and the locals were gone, and the South Wind had been folded into the somewhat truncated Pan American through BHM. Even the 1960 station was too large for that.
I think it might still
 
The area right around the BHM station looked pretty arty to me, usually stage one for gentrification. (The station itself is kind of sorry, I agree.) IOW it really didn't look all that bad.

All these negative references to Calcutta--I hope nobody from Kolkata is lurking on this thread. They might be pretty upset by now.

(Like 99% of us here know what a modern Indian metropolis is really like, anyway. I don't know either--I'm good friends with a nice lady from Mumbai, and that's like comparing LA to Chicago, I suspect.)
 
Elyton Yard was located east-west on the south side of 3rd Av W between 7th St W and Center St. The passenger station was at the corner of Center and 3rd. In the late 1950s the ACL decided to abandon Elyton Yard as well as Day Street Yard in Montgomery. The ACL moved into the L&N yards in those cities. Eventually the segment of the ACL from Helena northwestward to Bessemer was abandoned; instead, ACL trains ran up the L&N from Parkwood.
 
The area right around the BHM station looked pretty arty to me, usually stage one for gentrification. (The station itself is kind of sorry, I agree.) IOW it really didn't look all that bad.
All these negative references to Calcutta--I hope nobody from Kolkata is lurking on this thread. They might be pretty upset by now.

(Like 99% of us here know what a modern Indian metropolis is really like, anyway. I don't know either--I'm good friends with a nice lady from Mumbai, and that's like comparing LA to Chicago, I suspect.)
Sounds like one of those airplanes stuck on a tarmac for 7 hours! :eek:

The Black Hole of Calcutta was a small dungeon in the old Fort William in Calcutta, India, where troops of the Nawab of Bengal, Siraj ud-Daulah, held British prisoners of war after the capture of the fort on 20 June 1756.

One of the prisoners, John Zephaniah Holwell, claimed that following the fall of the fort, British and Anglo-Indian soldiers and civilians were held overnight in conditions so cramped that many died from suffocation, heat exhaustion and crushing. He claimed that 123 prisoners died out of 146 held. However, the precise number of deaths, and the accuracy of Holwell's claims, have been the subject of controversy
 
The Crescent moved to the L&N station after it was taken over by Amtrak. Teminal Station had been torn down sometime between 1968 and 1972. It was replaced by a small building on the same site more or less and a couple of platform tracks left. The Southern through trains all had to pull in and back if westbound/southbound or back in and pull out if northbound/eastbound. The Frisco to/from Southern and Illinois Central to/from Central of Georgia trains only could simply pull through. All were gone before the advent of Amtrak except the City of Miami which died with Amtrak.

It was relatively easy for the Crescent to move tto the L&N station as it only required a couple of crossovers between Southern and L&N tracks. With that the reversing move for the Crescent ended. Also, Amtrak was already using the L&N station as it had taken the pre-Amtrak South Wind which was always an L&N train made it their Chicago to Florida train, renamed it the Floridian and made it daily. Presumably Amtrak picked the Floridian over the City of Miami because it went through bigger cities on its route than the City of Miami. However, its route out of Chicago was a problem due to approaching collapse of Penn Central, and further south the declining track conditions of the L&N.
 
If I could get on a train in Birmingham and ride to Orlando or Chicago I would be such a happy person. Really wish the Floridian would have survived.
 
The Crescent moved to the L&N station after it was taken over by Amtrak. Teminal Station had been torn down sometime between 1968 and 1972. It was replaced by a small building on the same site more or less and a couple of platform tracks left. The Southern through trains all had to pull in and back if westbound/southbound or back in and pull out if northbound/eastbound. The Frisco to/from Southern and Illinois Central to/from Central of Georgia trains only could simply pull through. All were gone before the advent of Amtrak except the City of Miami which died with Amtrak.
Pic of the Terminal Station in 1977...

Picture0062web.jpg


That is me on the left with my two brothers.
 
The "second" Terminal Station was torn down, I believe, not long after Amtrak moved the Crescent to the L&N station. A platform or two was left behind for office cars and the occasional steam excursion.
 
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