Yet Another Atlanta Station Idea

With no progress on the Downtown Atlanta station project in the "Gulch", and no progress on the alternative "Atlantic Station" site, yet another Atlanta station location has been proposed, further northeast:

http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/print-edition/2015/07/31/amtrak-in-talks-for-new-station-at-gm-plant-site.html?ana=sm_atl_ucp95&b=1438269645^17801322

This location actually seems pretty decent. It would finally get Amtrak connected with MARTA; it has enough space to implement the cutoff cars on the Crescent, and to terminate trains if Georgia ever agrees to fund an additional train; it's got as many highway connections as you could possibly want. It's far enough outside of town that it doesn't prevent construction of a downtown station later; it would become the suburban station if a downtown station were constructed later. The developer is replacing a giant GM factory with a big housing/commercial development.

Fingers crossed, I hope this one goes through.

It's the best option at this point. It has much better road access (only 7% of the Atlanta CSA lives in the city itself). Even if the connection to MARTA is rarely used, it will defuse the complaints from those who do live in the city. From the perspective of Atlanta-Savannah, Atlanta-Charlotte, or Atlanta-Florida service that originates and terminates in Atlanta, it's fine except for the absence of a nearby wye.

It will, however, drive a stake into the heart of Chicago-Atlanta-Florida... but that heart hasn't beaten for decades anyway.

Looking at Google Maps, it appears that the GM plant has plenty of room for a wye (one leg being the current lead into the plant). I would bet NS would insist on it. It would certainly be handier for those doing a plane to train connection using MARTA, but yes it would make through midwest to Florida service very difficult. I guess you could still do midwest to Atlanta. Passengers would get s very long look at the city as it wandered through downtown and back north to Doraville. Chicago to Florida trains could still be routed via the former South Wind route via Nashville -Birmingham.

Ironically, NS has a modern yard office in Chamblee with about the same footprint as Brookwood station. Yard crews at Chamblee work the BOP yard (not as busy as it once was) and the equal-sized Doraville yard just across I-285 (as busy as ever). But the yard office is stuck between the MARTA Chamblee and Doraville stations, a long walk from both.

No doubt the developer of the GM plant could find space for a wye. Question is, will he.

I agree, the only feasible route Chicago-Florida continues to be via Nashville and Birmingham. But I don't see it happening.

This is an excellent location, especially since the City of Atlnta is under the gun to fix the area around Philips Arena, which houses the Atlanta Hawks. The new owner has made his displeasure known regarding the arena and the surrounding area....which includes "the gulch"! The City of Atlanta has already lost the Braves to Cobb County and they cannot afford to lose another major sports team.

The Doraville site has more than enough room for retail, condos, and supporting infrastructure.....including Amtrak, NS and Marta.

NS appears to be out of room, for freight storage, on a short term basis, since there are trains parked at Brookwood Station on a regular basis.

Noted in the "Future Atlanta Service" thread.

-It might be better to construct a balloon track north of Doraville station much like MIAMI, New Orleans throat, old Richmond, Va. Broad street station. That would make it feasible to turn whole trains at once and if Chattanooga - Florida ever started turn the whole train.

New Orleans has a balloon track?

When the economy is in high gear, as it is now, NS has capacity problems in Atlanta, Birmingham, Chattanooga, and Macon. Since Brosnan Yard was carved out of the swaps south of Macon 50 years ago, the only major expansion in that region has been the opening of the intermodal terminal at Austell. I'm not surprised that trains have to be held on the main line. The saving grace is that the Atlanta-Greenville line, despite being mostly double track, is not really that busy.. especially the Atlanta-Chamblee portion which doesn't have the local BOP traffic that it once did.

Yes New Orleans has a balloon track. Located near the repair facility. That's how trains get turned around to back into NOL Union station.

For those who have not figured where this possible station site is, it is next to the Doraville station at the northeastern end of MARTA Gold line. It is about 9.5 miles northeast of the current Amtrak station, so it is well outside the city core. The site presents an interesting trade-off being close to a MARTA station and just inside the Atlanta beltway loop, but is on the northeastern perimeter of the Atlanta metro region. Which makes the site a long drive for those living in the western and southern parts of the region.

Checking the MARTA schedules, Doraville is 24 minutes trip time from Five Points and 41 minutes from the airport on the other end of the Gold line. So it would take a while to get downtown on MARTA, but not that long. So the trade-off in terms of the location is that Amtrak might get fewer passengers from the southern and western parts of the Atlanta metro region, but I suspect they would gain more passengers from having a walkable MARTA connection. MARTA is the 8th busiest heavy rail rapid transit system in the US and the Crescent would gain from being connected to it.

The question is how much space would the developer turn over to Amtrak for a station and storage tracks? If Amtrak were to reach an agreement on a station at the location, I hope they would set aside enough space for more than one storage or layover track, so there would be room to store a trainset overnight for a future daytime service train of some sort. The plans in the offering for the 17th and Northside site called for a 1200' long high level platform on a pull-over track, 1 shorter layover track and circa 16,000 sq foot station. My bet is that Amtrak would do the same here in the absence of any formal plans for additional service to Atlanta.

Amtrak, NS, and the developer are only in the discussion stage. Since a new station would require at least an environmental assessment, coordination with local planning boards, take years to line up the funds, and likely more years to land matching federal funds, do the engineering design phases, get approvals from all the local stakeholders, bid and award a construction contract, if a new station opens at the site in less than 7-8 years, it would be a miracle. Success would be a new station in 10 years.

I scouted out the location, because when we go to Atlanta, we're visiting family in the Newnan/Sharpsburg area, which is well SW of town.

AS LONG AS THERE ARE RENTAL CARS ON SITE, the location won't deter me, it looks like about an hour or so drive to our final destination, which seems reasonable to me (and likely faster than the current station-cab-rental car in Buckhead) shuffle we currently have to suffer through).

The location is still inside I-285 and from the perspective of most metro residents (I used to live there), it will still be viewed as a central location and is a good 30 minutes on I-85 in the middle of the night from the edge of civilization which continues to move north and northeast. I've seen a population density map of metro, and although the Doraville site isn't in the dead center of the density, neither is Brookwood. Downtown Atlanta would actually be farther away from the center of population. I believe Doraville is workable, and besides the City of Atlanta has had 35 years to figure out where to put a new Amtrak station and has flubbed it every time. Now we must move on.

For the record, there was a push as far back as the early 1980s to add a suburban stop for 19/20 in Norcross.

xyzzy said:

I believe Doraville is workable, and besides the City of Atlanta has had 35 years to figure out where to put a new Amtrak station and has flubbed it every time. Now we must move on.

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I agree, as well. In fact I wrote a snail-mail letter to the Georgia DOT and to the City of Atlanta Mayor's office supporting this proposal.

Just do it...it's all talk-talk-talk and no action. It's so frustrating.