Amtrak
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada ...
train station in
Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...
, United States. It serves the ''
Silver Meteor
The ''Silver Meteor'' is a passenger train operated by Amtrak between New York City and Miami, Florida. Introduced in 1939 as the first diesel-powered streamliner between New York and Florida, it was the flagship train of the Seaboard Air Line ...
'' and ''
Silver Star
The Silver Star Medal (SSM) is the United States Armed Forces' third-highest military decoration for valor in combat. The Silver Star Medal is awarded primarily to members of the United States Armed Forces for gallantry in action against an ...
'' trains as well as
Amtrak Thruway
Amtrak Thruway is a system of through-ticketed transportation services to connect passengers with areas not served by Amtrak trains. In most cases these are dedicated motorcoach routes, but can also be non-dedicated intercity bus services, transi ...
buses to Lakeland. The station is located at 3570 Clifford Ln, Jacksonville, FL.
History
Amtrak's
Northside
Northside or North Side may refer to:
Music
* Northside (band), a musical group from Manchester, England
* NorthSide, an American record label
* NorthSide Festival (Denmark), a music festival in Aarhus, Denmark
* " Norf Norf", a 2015 song by Vi ...
station was opened on January 4, 1974, replacing Jacksonville Union Terminal downtown. "Jacksonville Terminal" as it is sometimes called, is now the
Prime F. Osborn III Convention Center
Prime F. Osborn III Convention Center is a convention center located in downtown Jacksonville, Florida. Opened in 1986, it was built incorporating Jacksonville Terminal Complex / Union Station as well as several thousand square feet of newly bu ...
. The Northside station saw 8 trains daily upon opening, 4 in each direction. Those trains were the ''Silver Meteor'', ''Silver Star'', ''
Champion
A champion (from the late Latin ''campio'') is the victor in a challenge, contest or competition. There can be a territorial pyramid of championships, e.g. local, regional / provincial, state, national, continental and world championships, ...
'', and '' Floridian'', but also very briefly saw the '' Vacationer''. The ''Floridian'' and ''Champion'' would later be discontinued in the 1979 budget cuts.
In 1993, the ''
Sunset Limited
The ''Sunset Limited'' is an Amtrak passenger train that for most of its history has operated between New Orleans and Los Angeles, over the nation's second transcontinental route. However, up until Hurricane Katrina in 2005, it operated betw ...
Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at th ...
, and added a stop at Jacksonville. Then in 1996, the station's services were further expanded to include the newly reinstated '' Silver Palm'' running from New York to Tampa.
On November 1, 2004 however, the ''Silver Palm'', now renamed to ''
Palmetto
Palmetto (meaning "little palm") may refer to:
Palms
Several small palms in the Arecaceae (palm tree) family:
*in the genus '' Sabal'':
**Bermuda palmetto, ''Sabal bermudana''
**Birmingham palmetto, ''Sabal'' 'Birmingham'
**Dwarf, or bush palm ...
'', had its terminus cut back to
Savannah, Georgia
Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia and is the county seat of Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the British colonial capital of the Province of Georgia and later t ...
. Later in 2005, the ''Sunset Limited'' was suspended east of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, and still has yet to be reinstated. This has left the station with just two trains in each direction a day: the ''Silver Meteor'' and ''Silver Star''.
Gallery
File:Window view from Amtrak Champion at Jacksonville, March 1979.jpg, A window view from the ''Champion'' showing the platform and part of the station building from March 1979.
File:CSX 5508 ready to put office car on Silver Meteor atJacksonville, FL November 18, 1986 04 (22767123895).jpg, The ''Silver Meteor'' arrives at the station where a
CSX
CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...
B30-7 is waiting in 1986.
File:Jacksonville Amtrak station train 91 fuel.jpg, The southbound ''Silver Star's'' two GE P42DC locomotives are being refueled by a fuel truck in March 2011.
File:Jacksonville Amtrak station train 91 stop.jpg, A northward facing view showing the passenger platforms (left) and freight platform (right), as well as the station building.
Future
In March 2021, Amtrak announced the "Connect 2035", or "Connects Us" program, aimed at adding new Amtrak services around the country. Jacksonville was not left out of this plan, and two daily round trips between Jacksonville and Tampa via Orlando have been proposed. The service is projected to generate a combined $338 million in annual economic impact in the region and nearly $3.5 billion in economic activity from one-time capital investments.
In June 2021, Senator
Jon Tester
Raymond Jon Tester (born August 21, 1956) is an American farmer and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Montana, a seat he has held since 2007. A member of the Democratic Party, Tester is the dean of Montana's congressi ...
(D-Montana) added an amendment to the Surface Transportation Investment Act of 2021 which requires the Department of Transportation (not Amtrak itself) to evaluate the restoration of discontinued long-distance routes, such as the ''Champion'' and ''Floridian''. The bill passed the
Senate Commerce Committee
The United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation is a standing committee of the United States Senate. Besides having broad jurisdiction over all matters concerning interstate commerce, science and technology policy, a ...
with bipartisan support, and was later rolled into President Biden's
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill and originally in the House as the INVEST in America ActH.R. 3684, is a United States federal statute enacted by the 117th United States Congres ...
, which was passed into law in November 2021. The report must be delivered to Congress within two years. The law also provides $2.4 billion in new funds to Amtrak's long-distance route network. Currently though, there are no plans to restore trains such as the ''Champion'' and ''Floridian'', but that could change in the future, depending on if there is support for such services.