Groundbreaking kicks off Birmingham multimodal station project

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1

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Groundbreaking kicks off Birmingham multimodal station project

2

Here is another project we’ve been waiting on for a decade or more. 'Bout time.

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Long overdue!

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How will the construction impact the current station for Amtrak riders? I will be taking the Crescent in June. Will I still be able to board the train in Birmingham?

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How will the construction impact the current station for Amtrak riders? I will be taking the Crescent in June. Will I still be able to board the train in Birmingham?

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All of Birmingham’s leaders have anxiously been awaiting this announcement. The new multi-model hub will join other modern facilities such as those in Fort Worth and Albuquerque in making public transit more seamless. In addition, the modern facility will do for Birmingham what Memphis’ station did for them - we all remember how terrible an experience de-training from there used to be! Now, to fix the situation in Atlanta…

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Now something needs to be done to push along the new station for Atlanta.

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I certainly would say," About time!"

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I hadn’t realized I was in the former baggage room the few times I boarded Amtrak at Birmingham. Golly, I just thought it was a dump. I guess it turns out I was right. Congratulations to the citizens of Jefferson County on something they will be so proud of!

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Originally, when Amtrak began service in 1971, the Crescent did NOT serve the current station, but was served by Amtrak’s Chicago-Florida train until 1979. During that year alone, Birmingham briefly enjoyed being a crossroads hub for Amtrak, and with some decent daytime hours for its trains in the middle of the day. By staying put at the former L&N station, Amtrak saved themselves the costly trouble of relocating at that time.
Now with the new intermodal terminal being built, it will be a benefit to both Amtrak and Greyhound. I would like to see Amtrak restore Chicago-Florida service, but I don’t believe bringing that train through Alabama would be the best routing. However, I do have a long term suggestion for restoring service north/south through Alabama, and that would be to consider restoring the former Gulf Breeze train and instead of combing it with the Crescent at Birmingham, Why not run it on the former Floridian route through Nashville and Louisville, then pickup the former Kentucky Cardinal route to Chicago?

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I have long advocated for transit hubs. And the more options someone has at the hub, the better. Always the one seat ride is the ideal when using transit, but people will make a transfer if it is easy and convenient to do so. Hopefully if Birmingham ever gets a light rail line, it will stop here and connect to the other major transit hub most cities of Birmingham’s size has: the airport.

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I agree with William Eslinger about serving airports, too. If not a rail line, at least a direct bus line connection for starters. City bus lines run between Amtrak and the airport in places like Pittsburgh, Albuquerque, Spokane, New Orleans and Los Angeles. I’m sure there are quite a few more.