Atlanta GA to Savannah GA by train?

[NETrainfan]

Hi- Have read that it is a very long trip by train from Atlanta to Savannah by Amtrak. What are the best options

for this trip? Is there a local train? Thanks in advance for info.

 

[me_little_me]

Bus?

Long trip by train is an understatement. It's overnight to do it via Crescent to Washington and then via the Silver Star. Theoretically if the Crescent is on time, you could take it to Alexandria and then the Palmetto but with a 20 minute connection, you'd be better off buying a lottery ticket, winning a zillion dollars and building your own RR. The best "connection" involves 3 trains - Crescent to Charlotte, the Carolinian to Wilson, NC then Palmetto to Savannah. Unfortunately, until Georgia decides trains are important, it will not get any better.

 

[Anderson]

Sadly, the local train on this route was cut at A-Day. Your options are basically:
Crescent to WAS/ALX, then Silver Service/Palmetto to SAV or

Crescent to CLT, Carolinian to RGH, Palmetto to SAV.

The former option is more comfortable, but takes two nights. The latter trip can be done in a bit over 24 hours.

 

[Mid Atlantic]

It would be really crazy to attempt. You would have to take Crescent to Greensboro, NC, transfer to the Carolinian to Raleigh then take the Silver Star to Savannah. Travel time would be 32 hours.

 

[Bronzeman]

Unfortunately there are no reasonable options on Amtrak. The reason the trip takes so long is that it either requires a change on Washington (Crescent to Silver Star) or two changes in North Carolina (Crescent to Carolinian to Palmetto). There is no train that runs between the cities while remaining within Georgia. I try to take Amtrak whenever feasible but this is a journey not even I would contemplate.

 

[NETrainfan]

Thank you. Am asking for a family member.

Wow! Up here in Maine we say "You can't get there from here!"

 

[xyzzy]

It used to be possible to go Atlanta-New Orleans-Jacksonville-Savannah on Amtrak, although that would have been an even worse ordeal.

 

[Meat Puppet]

You can get an alamo rental from Atl to Sav for under $50

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

Greyhound's your best bet: http://extranet.greyhound.com/revsup/schedules2/pdf/439.pdf.

This route is operated with Atlanta-based D4505's. $30 one-way, $34 weekend.

 

[afigg]

Thank you. Am asking for a family member.

Wow! Up here in Maine we say "You can't get there from here!"

It looks to be faster to take Amtrak from Portland ME to Savannah than Atlanta to Savannah. One of the options for POR to SAV is #682 Downeaster, departing POR at 8 AM, transfer to BBY, then an Acela to NYP, then the Silver Meteor departing NYP at 3:15 PM, arriving SAV at 6:44 AM. Overnight, but around 23 hours. With the Acela, it is the expensive option though. #680 Downeaster departing POR at 5:30 AM to a Regional at BBY to the Silver Meteor at NYP would be less expensive.

According to Google Maps, a bike trip from Atlanta to Savannah could be done in 22 hours. So riding a bicycle between Atlanta and Savannah could be faster than Amtrak (if one were to ride almost non-stop).

Just one of the many gaps in service in the Amtrak system, especially across the south and central part of the US.

 

[xyzzy]

Sadly, the local train on this route was cut at A-Day.

Specifically, this was the Central of Georgia "Nancy Hanks II" which ran daily Savannah-Atlanta in the morning and Atlanta-Savannah at night. 6 hours each way although at times the train was timetabled for 5 hours 40 minutes; 292 railroad miles. Can be driven today in 3 hrs 45 mins (legally), assuming no traffic congestion; 248 highway miles.

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

Sadly, the local train on this route was cut at A-Day.

Specifically, this was the Central of Georgia "Nancy Hanks II" which ran daily Savannah-Atlanta in the morning and Atlanta-Savannah at night. 6 hours each way although at times the train was timetabled for 5 hours 40 minutes; 292 railroad miles. Can be driven today in 3 hrs 45 mins (legally), assuming no traffic congestion; 248 highway miles.

Or 4:35 on Greyhound, and it uses HOV lanes, blast past the congestion and arrive early even in rush hour. But the Nancy Hanks II had a dome, IIRC. The D4505 has ample legroom but the seats feel too much like Amtrak Coach seats, poor lumbar support compared to the classic old seats on both trains and buses.

 

[MattW]

The few HOV lanes Atlanta has are just as full as the other lanes. There is no "blast past the congestion" here.

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

The few HOV lanes Atlanta has are just as full as the other lanes. There is no "blast past the congestion" here.

Hmm, I rode Greyhound to/from Atlanta when I lived in Birmingham and the HOV lanes always helped. Maybe you're taking HOV lanes smack at 5 PM on the ring road or something, the roads in and out of town are not that congested.

 

[MattW]

Any time the Atlanta HOV lanes are flowing faster than the other lanes, you aren't going any faster than the regular lanes, and there aren't any on the ring road which is just as congested as the in/out roads. Believe me, I live here and have commuted from one side of the city to the other at various times at up to 5 days per week. The only place they really help is the dedicated HOV exits, but the true time difference is miniscule.

 

[JoeBas]

What are you talking about???? Atlanta's traffic isn't bad.....

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.

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BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA sorry I tried I really did...

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

As I said, as long you don't go at rush hour, it's fine. You're not commuting daily on Greyhound anyway, there's plenty of schedules around congestion. Again, you don't have to slam yourself into congestion when you don't have to. I did that with Atlanta, and I was fine. In the SF Bay Area though, the HOV lanes are otherworldly faster than the regular lanes. That's where you really blast past 1000 cars at 4:30 PM and get to Reno 30 minutes early.

But yeah, that D4505 really needs seat cushions that are better than Amtrak, because its legroom isn't as good as Amtrak.

 

[Nathanael]

It's unfortunately cheaper to rent a car than to take Greyhound from Atlanta to Savannah (I just checked).

And as far as I can tell Greyhound *still* overbooks, which is why I won't use them unless I can afford to be a day late and out my money. If they've stopped this pernicious practice, let me know, Swadian.

 

[Nathanael]

Ah, upon research I see that the so-called "Greyhound Express" routes are not overbooked and are therefore acceptable. The others are overbooked.

Luckily some of the Atlanta-Savannah trips are "Greyhound Express". This also makes it safer to get a non-refundable fare, which it totally is not safe to do otherwise. If you take Greyhound, I would advise *only* taking the "Greyhound Express" reservations.

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

Ah, upon research I see that the so-called "Greyhound Express" routes are not overbooked and are therefore acceptable. The others are overbooked.

Luckily some of the Atlanta-Savannah trips are "Greyhound Express". This also makes it safer to get a non-refundable fare, which it totally is not safe to do otherwise. If you take Greyhound, I would advise *only* taking the "Greyhound Express" reservations.

Actually, the non-Express routes have showed up as "SOLD OUT" recently, so Greyhound doesn't overbook anymore. This can be proven on my New Year's trip to San Francisco, when the D4505 was filled out to every seat, yet no one was left behind.

The problem is that Greyhound doesn't always fix bus models to routes, and different bus models have slightly different capacity, so slight overbooking is hard to avoid. But again, the D4505 has the lowest capacity, at 50 passengers, and that one was perfectly topped out, NOT on an official Express run, though the schedule was actually structured as an express (few stops).

BTW, back a few months ago when they still overbooked, that wasn't because they did it on purpose, it was just that they had a mess of too many different bus models and their Trips computer was overloaded and outdated.

Now that I check again, Greyhound may have rebuilt 502-505 which were the old buses on Atlanta-Savannah before the D4505's came. After rebuilding, they have one extra seat compared to the new buses, so that won't hurt. Besides, the rebuilt oldies are a lot more comfortable than the new ones. That's the one on my avatar.

 

[jphjaxfl]

Most people fly between Atlanta and Savannah these days. Delta has about 8 flights each direction. When I lived in Atlanta, I had customers in Savannah. I used to fly down in the morning and back in the late afternoon. The flights were and are full. I did have the pleasure of taking the Nancy Hanks from Atlanta to Savannah and back in February, 1971. I travel down to Savannah on Saturday night and returned Sunday morning. Both trains were very full. I had dinner in the dining car on the way down and breakfast on Sunday morning. The food was excellent. The train also had a ex Wabash Dome Coach which was nice for viewing. Georgia has talked about resurrecting passenger train service on several routes including Atlanta-Savannah, but that's all it is.

 

[George Harris]

Atlanta - Savannah would be an excellent candidate for reinstatement. However, if done properly it should have no less than 3 trains a day, a morning, midday and evening in each direction. A connection with Florida trains at Savannah should also be arranged. There are relatively lightly used lines on this route, and upgrading track for good speeds is relatively cheap compared to realignments and new railroad.

 

[VentureForth]

Most people fly between Atlanta and Savannah these days. Delta has about 8 flights each direction. When I lived in Atlanta, I had customers in Savannah. I used to fly down in the morning and back in the late afternoon. The flights were and are full. I did have the pleasure of taking the Nancy Hanks from Atlanta to Savannah and back in February, 1971. I travel down to Savannah on Saturday night and returned Sunday morning. Both trains were very full.

I had dinner in the dining car on the way down and breakfast on Sunday morning. The food was excellent. The train also had a ex Wabash Dome Coach which was nice for viewing. Georgia has talked about resurrecting passenger train service on several routes including Atlanta-Savannah, but that's all it is.
Trains were full? There were comments made by folks on the final run on April 30th, 1971 that commented that if every person that was waving a goodbye sign to the train rode the NH II just once in the previous year, they wouldn't be going away.

 

[xyzzy]

Amtrak didn't want Atlanta-Savannah, and Southern was anxious to downgrade the ex-CofG Atlanta-Macon immediately upon discontinuance of the Nancy Hanks II. The Macon-Savannah segment was, and still is, important to Southern/NS for freight. However, Macon-Savannah has never been signaled... so it's 59 mph at best, and the expense to upgrade it for 79 mph passenger service would be considerable.

Instead, Georgia planners have favored an Atlanta-Macon-Jesup routing that uses the NS Macon-Jesup-Brunswick line, which is less curvy than the ex-CofG and less burdened by freight too. Of course, Macon-Jesup would nevertheless require big-bucks upgrades for 79 mph. Beyond Jesup, the trains would run on CSX to Savannah or Jacksonville at 79 mph (the route of the Silvers and Auto Train). Might happen in 25 years, let's see. GaDOT and Amtrak ran a demonstration train Atlanta-Savannah in 1981. Not much has happened since then.

 

[jphjaxfl]

Well, the Nancy Hanks required a seat reservation which I still have. The train consisted of the original Nancy Hanks equipment painted accordingly which were 2 coaches, the diner lounge plus the dome coach. The only seats not reserved were the dome seats. I walked the train leaving both Atlanta and Savannah. According to my notes, the train was 80% full leaving Atlanta and 50% full leaving Savannah. Many of the passengers were not traveling all the way from Atlanta to Savannah, but from Atlanta to the many smaller towns and cities along the route. The highways were nothing like today. I-16 was not even a dream. The same thing happened Sunday morning. The train was only 50% full leaving leaving Savannah, but about 90% full arriving in Atlanta. Georgia has really improved their highways over the 43 years since the Nancy ran, but nothing for passenger trains.