Amtrak in Augusta

[BobWeaver]

I saw this on the Augusta GA news this morning.

http://www.nbcaugusta.com/news/local/7340601.html

"Thinking about traveling from Augusta?
You can hit the highway, fly from Augusta Regional or catch a bus downtown.

With so many tracks and so many trains, you'd think 'railing' out of Augusta wouldn't be so tough.

"It would be a pleasure for Augusta to have Amtrak," Roger Adams said. And that's exactly what may happen if a former congressman gets his way.

Amtrak tells NBC Augusta Mac Collins spoke with them about the possibility of one of its' trains rolling through Augusta.

"I think we need another means of transportation from one place to another," Hetti Copeland said.

That's good news for Copeland since she drives more than an hour to Columbia to catch the train.

"We need a means of transportation to other points. I think we have a large enough population for them to merit coming to Augusta," Copeland said.

Talk of Amtrak rolling into Augusta is actually nothing new. Back in 2001, they paid a visit here, but that project was derailed.

Then Richmond County commissioner and now county attorney Stephen Shepard had his hand in helping to put Augusta on Amtrak's map. He also watched the opportunity pass by.

"There were questions about where we'll get the money to subsidize the service. How will the freight railroad accept it?," Shepard said.

Six years later, those logistical questions remain, and have to be answered before Amtrak's whistle blows in Augusta.

Amtrak tells us Mac Collins is scheduled to meet with them in the coming weeks.

Any thoughts on this? I'm not sure where this train would come from or what railroad it would use (CSX and NS both serve Augusta), but I know that CSX comes from Atlanta, and the NS heads to Columbia, SC and eventually to Charlotte, NC.

 

[jamesontheroad]

Forgive me, but my geography of the Augusta area is terrible. What would the most likely scenario be: a new service or diversion / extension of current routes?

*j* :blink:

 

[BobWeaver]

Forgive me, but my geography of the Augusta area is terrible. What would the most likely scenario be: a new service or diversion / extension of current routes?
*j* :blink:

Augusta and the surrounding areas are void of passenger service. Think of it as Augusta being in the middle of the area that makes people drive a few hours to the nearest train station. Atlanta (Crescent) is a little over 2 hours to the west, Columbia (Silver Star) is about an hour and a half to the east, and Savannah or Charleston (Silver Meteor / Palmetto) are even farther. I live in Aiken, SC (about 20 minutes from Augusta) and I have had to drive to Clemson and Charlotte to catch appropriate trains that fit my schedule, both destinations being over 2 and a half hours away.

 

[Rafi]

Forgive me, but my geography of the Augusta area is terrible. What would the most likely scenario be: a new service or diversion / extension of current routes?
*j* :blink:

Honestly, since Augusta is so close to towns like Columbia and Denmark, I dunno how it'd fit into a larger scheme on existing routes without rerouting the Silver Star to run southwest of Denmark, then southeast to Savannah. I imagine it would add even more time to the route, and that may not sit well with folks traveling from further upstream to Florida and vice versa.

Ideally, the only thing I could imagine that would be win-win would be a new service running from Atlanta (out in the morning, connecting from the southbound Crescent) to Macon, to Augusta, then Savannah (again, not sure of existing rail lines in this scenario) and then down to Florida on the Silver Service routing, providing that Atlanta-Florida connection idea that Amtrak's been kicking around as a potential day train (not sure if it'd terminate in JAX, ORL, or MIA; I do know that they would want it to be a Palmetto-style day train, so it'd need to finish up service in the mid evening). Bit of a zig-zag, but not too bad considering you'd cover two fairly large communities that have lost Amtrak thruway bus service connections in the past few years.

-Rafi

 

[AmtrakWPK]

And assuming the stake has been driven through the Sunset-east of NOL's heart, an ATL-JAX or ATL-SAV train would reestablish (albeit somewhat indirectly) the southern transcon that Sunset broke when it terminated at NOL

 

[jphjaxfl]

Up until at least 1967, Seaboard Coastline ran a branch of the New York-Savannah Palmetto to Augusta. It branched off the mainline at Florence, South Carolina and carried through sleeper from New York to Augusta with coaches from Washington to Augusta. At one time through service to Atlanta via Augusta and the Georgia Railroad was also offered. The trip from Florence to Augusta was about 4 hours and 45 minutes. I am not sure if the tracks are in decent shape today, but that may be the best route. Unfortunately the beautiful Augusta Union Station doesn't exist so a new station would be needed.

 

[Palmland]

As much as I would love to have service to Augusta, it is hard to see how it fits into the national network.

CSX from Augusta to Savannah is unsignaled with heavy coal traffic and as noted would be a circuitous routing from Columbia to Savannah which would add about 80 miles to the present Star's route - on significantly slower track.

For Atlanta passengers, the Georgia Road provided good service but today it is heavily used by CSX and the signaling would have to be upgraded (still requires DTO block operation). And is there really that much of a market from Augusta?

Only NS line to Columbia could handle a train without significant investment and I doubt Augusta alone can generate that much business.

I think a better option is spend the money on Atlanta to Savannah service where you can easily connect to Silver Service trains to Florida and the Northeast. A thurway bus from Augusta to Columbia would take care of Augusta passengers. The former Central of Georgia's classy little streamliner from Atlanta to Savannah via Macon- the Nancy Hanks II was very popular and I think should be reborn in connection with Atlanta to Jax and beyond service.

 

[MrFSS]

I just looked at some population figures. Augusta is somewhere between 200,000 and 225,000. How many other cities that size don't have direct Amtrak service? There are probably a lot of cities that are even larger that don't. Phoenix is a large one, so is Columbus, Ohio and neither have train service. Oh for the good old days!!

 

[George Harris]

I think you can regard this as simply a local politician getting his face before the public on a slow news day.

At one point the state of Georigia was dreaming up passenger service to various places with an Atlanta Hub. Augusta was fairly high on the llist. However, the Georgia Railroad (now part of CSX) alignment between Atlanta and Augusta is anything but fast. Unless someone knows how to get their hands on a billion dollars or so to do a lot of upgrades and realignments, the 35 to 40 mph end to end average speed the current line is capable of really does not make corridor type service a viable proposition.

For long distance service out of the northeast a stub out of Columbia SC on the former Southern line (now NS) once used by the Augusta Special would probably be the most logical, but again you have an unsignaled piece of railroad over which the best service ever averaged about 30 mph. Then of course there is the current Silver Star schedule which would mean a middle of the night arrival / departure.

I simply don't see a viable plan here.

George

 

[BobWeaver]

As much as I would love to have service to Augusta, it is hard to see how it fits into the national network.
CSX from Augusta to Savannah is unsignaled with heavy coal traffic and as noted would be a circuitous routing from Columbia to Savannah which would add about 80 miles to the present Star's route - on significantly slower track.

For Atlanta passengers, the Georgia Road provided good service but today it is heavily used by CSX and the signaling would have to be upgraded (still requires DTO block operation). And is there really that much of a market from Augusta?

Only NS line to Columbia could handle a train without significant investment and I doubt Augusta alone can generate that much business.

I think a better option is spend the money on Atlanta to Savannah service where you can easily connect to Silver Service trains to Florida and the Northeast. A thurway bus from Augusta to Columbia would take care of Augusta passengers. The former Central of Georgia's classy little streamliner from Atlanta to Savannah via Macon- the Nancy Hanks II was very popular and I think should be reborn in connection with Atlanta to Jax and beyond service.

All of the CSX from Augusta to Savannah is signaled. I saw / heard this when I chased the CSX OCS last month all the way to a little east of Savannah. I actually think a routing from Augusta east to Fairfax SC, where it would transfer to the Columbia Sub south, and on to Savannah (and points south) would do quite well. When I was chasing the OCS, it regularly reached speeds of 60 mph when it wasn't shoved into a siding for a meet with a Q6-- something (once), given slow orders (once), or slowing somewhat for a town (a few times). I think that Amtrak could easily reach higher speeds. While I would hardly call the Columbia Sub congested, I think that freight volume is comparable to other lines that Amtrak runs on, if not a little less.

The NS to Columbia from Augusta is unsignaled, but freights through there run anywhere from 40-50 mph. This is also the same route that the NS OCS come into Augusta on last month from up north. The line is not heavily traveled, with about 6-10 trains daily if I had to estimate. I'm not sure where Amtrak would go from Columbia - either to Charlotte on the NS or Florence or Camden on the CSX.