M
Mike Carlisle
Guest
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?Does anyone know if they have started working on the new station yet?
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 eitherI'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 L&N station was situated in such a way that it could not be used by the Crescent.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 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.
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.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.
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'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.
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.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.
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.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'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.
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?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.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.
Where is Elyton Yard? It sounds out of town.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.
I think it might stillI 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.
Sounds like one of those airplanes stuck on a tarmac for 7 hours!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.)
Pic of the Terminal Station in 1977...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.
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