Future Peachtree alternative

[lepearso]

Howdy folks.

We may one day have an alternative to Atlanta's Peachtree station. Douglasville, GA passed a resolution to ask Amtrak to stop in their city, which is a growing western Atlanta suburb. The Crescent (19 & 20) passes through on its way between Atlanta and Anniston, AL.

I hope this comes to fruition. Atlanta needs an alternative to Peachtree Station. The parking situation alone is enough to discourage any ridership growth, not to mention the crowdedness and the awkward layout of the station.

A stop in Douglasville or other western suburb would increase the appeal of the Crescent to people living in and near Atlanta. I think you would see a noticeable boost in ridership on the southernmost part of the route between Atlanta and New Orleans. (The Atlanta to Washington part of the route is usually full, especially in the sleepers.) It might also relieve some of the crowding at Peachtree.

We'll see what happens. The cost of a new station may be enough to derail this idea.

Read about it here in the Times-Georgian.

 

[Ryan]

Put a rental car facility nearby that's open when the train calls 7 days a week and it'll be a winner.

 

[GaSteve]

Howdy folks.

We may one day have an alternative to Atlanta's Peachtree station. Douglasville, GA passed a resolution to ask Amtrak to stop in their city, which is a growing western Atlanta suburb. The Crescent (19 & 20) passes through on its way between Atlanta and Anniston, AL.

I hope this comes to fruition. Atlanta needs an alternative to Peachtree Station. The parking situation alone is enough to discourage any ridership growth, not to mention the crowdedness and the awkward layout of the station.

A stop in Douglasville or other western suburb would increase the appeal of the Crescent to people living in and near Atlanta. I think you would see a noticeable boost in ridership on the southernmost part of the route between Atlanta and New Orleans. (The Atlanta to Washington part of the route is usually full, especially in the sleepers.) It might also relieve some of the crowding at Peachtree.

We'll see what happens. The cost of a new station may be enough to derail this idea.

Read about it here in the Times-Georgian.

The same could be said from a stop in Norcross or Duluth.

 

[MattW]

I'll use it.

Though I'd prefer a stop in Villa Rica personally because it's right at about 36 miles from Atlanta. For Atlanta specifically, a commuter rail implementation makes the most sense if the outlying termini are around 30 miles from Atlanta. For a commuter/intercity rail system, having your outer most commuter stations serve as intercity stops makes sense as people can then transfer to commuter rail for intermediate stops and the intercity train can run nonstop to and from the central station.

The commuter rail map I cobbled together shows this distance and intermediate stops (darkest green line): http://tiny.cc/cal2r

 

[Bill Haithcoat]

The old railroad timetables can help with mileages. This is because there used to be trains called "locals" which stopped much more often than any Amtrak train does today.

There is a flaw in the below info since it includes the now gone downtown Terminal Station. I am not sure how to compensate for that,so will just list it straight out of the timetable.

I do not think the train went exactly the same way to and from Terminal Station from the mainline,thus it would be not be quite as simple as deducting the mileage from Terminal to Peachtree then multiplying times two. But close. Matt might have that figure, I do not.

from Birmingham 11-10-58

villa rica 129

doulasville 140

austell 148.4

downtown terminal station, no longer exists, 161.4

peachtree street station, present Amtrak facility 165.5

oglethorpe university 172.2

chamblee 174.4

doraville 175.8

norcross 180,5

duluth 186.4

 

[battalion51]

You could compensate for downtown by putting in a stop at CNN Center. Have a few escalators come up into the belly of CNN and have the ability to transfer to MARTA.