Jacksonville, FL
The front of the station.
General information
Location3570 Clifford Lane
Jacksonville, Florida
United States
Coordinates30°21′58″N 81°43′24″W / 30.3661°N 81.72339°W / 30.3661; -81.72339
Owned byAmtrak
Platforms1 island platform, 1 side platform
Tracks4 (2 station tracks and 2 house tracks)
ConnectionsBus transport Amtrak Thruway to Gainesville and Ocala
Bus transport JTA Bus: 3
Construction
ParkingYes
Bicycle facilitiesYes
AccessibleYes
Other information
Station codeAmtrak: JAX
History
Opened1974
Passengers
FY 202248,144[1] (Amtrak)
Services
Preceding station Amtrak Following station
Palatka
toward Miami
 Silver Meteor Jesup
toward New York
Silver Star Savannah
toward New York
     Auto Train does not stop here
Former services
Preceding station Amtrak Following station
Lake City
toward Los Angeles
 Sunset Limited
(1993–2005)
 Palatka
toward Orlando or Miami
Waldo
toward Miami
 Palmetto
(2002–2004)
 Savannah
toward New York
DeLand
toward St. Petersburg
 Floridian
(until 1979)
 Waycross
toward Chicago
Waldo
toward Miami

Jacksonville station is an Amtrak train station in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. It serves the Silver Meteor and Silver Star trains as well as Amtrak Thruway buses to Lakeland. The station is located at 3570 Clifford Ln, Jacksonville, FL.

History

Amtrak's Northside 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.[2] The Northside station saw 8 trains daily upon opening, 4 in each direction. Those trains were the Silver Meteor, Silver Star, Champion, and Floridian, but also very briefly saw the Vacationer.[3] The Floridian and Champion would later be discontinued in the 1979 budget cuts.

In 1993, the Sunset Limited was extended east from its New Orleans terminus all the way to Miami, and added a stop at Jacksonville.[4] Then in 1996, the station's services were further expanded to include the newly reinstated Silver Palm running from New York to Tampa.[5]

On November 1, 2004 however, the Silver Palm, now renamed to Palmetto, had its terminus cut back to Savannah, Georgia. 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.

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.[6]

In June 2021, Senator Jon Tester (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.[7][8] The bill passed the Senate Commerce Committee with bipartisan support,[9][10] and was later rolled into President Biden's Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which was passed into law in November 2021.[11] The report must be delivered to Congress within two years.[12] The law also provides $2.4 billion in new funds to Amtrak's long-distance route network.[13] 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.

References

  1. ↑ "Amtrak Fact Sheet, Fiscal Year 2022: State of Florida" (PDF). Amtrak. June 2023. Retrieved August 30, 2023.
  2. ↑ Lost Jacksonville: Union Terminal
  3. ↑ Amtrak Timetable effective May 19, 1974, p. 38 http://timetables.org/full.php?group=19740519&item=0039
  4. ↑ Amtrak Timetable effective May 2, 1993, p. 13 http://timetables.org/full.php?group=19930502n&item=0013
  5. ↑ Amtrak Timetable effective November 10, 1996, p. 29 http://timetables.org/full.php?group=19961110n&item=0029
  6. ↑ Amtrak’s Vision: Jacksonville – Orlando – Tampa
  7. ↑ Kidston, Martin (23 June 2021). "Montana's passenger rail authority poised for boost from Tester transportation amendment". Missoula Current. Retrieved 27 July 2021.
  8. ↑ Kidston, Martin (21 February 2022). "Pending federal passenger rail study likely to include southern Montana route". Missoula Current. Retrieved 11 May 2022.
  9. ↑ "Key Policy Victories in Senate Rail Title". www.railpassengers.org. Rail Passengers Association. 16 June 2021. Retrieved 27 July 2021.
  10. ↑ Luczak, Marybeth (17 June 2021). "Senate Commerce Committee's Bipartisan $78B Surface Transportation Bill Advances". Railway Age. Retrieved 27 July 2021.
  11. ↑ "What's in the Investment in Infrastructure and Jobs Act (IIJA)?". www.railpassengers.org. Rail Passengers Association. 8 November 2021. Retrieved 11 November 2021.
  12. ↑ "Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act" (PDF). pp. 285–256. Retrieved 11 November 2021.
  13. ↑ Kidston, Martin (10 November 2021). "Infrastructure bill boosts regional effort to restore passenger rail to southern MT". KTVH. Retrieved 16 November 2021.

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