ATL Trains | Our Passenger Rail History
Introduction
82 percent of the Atlanta Region's historic downtown centers lie within a half-mile of a current or former railroad corridor. This is no coincidence—100 years before freeways connected what is now Metro Atlanta, most of our cities and towns formed and grew along the Region's vast railroad network and were connected by over 120 daily passenger trains and nearly 100 stations and stops. The proximity of our existing town centers, especially historic downtowns, to the railroad network presents immense opportunities for economic development, density, and tourism that are capitalized on in the ATL Trains Vision.
Regional rail does not require a vast reimagining of how the Atlanta Region has grown; instead it simply hearkens the Region back to how it managed to grow throughout its history.
Purpose
The purpose of this StoryMap is to highlight the Atlanta Region's railroad history, its passenger rail service offerings at its peak one century ago, and the opportunities that reestablishing passenger rail in the form of the ATL Trains Vision could have specifically to the Region's existing town centers.
Primary Passenger Rail Stations
While 100 stations and stops existed a century ago in the Atlanta Region, three primary stations tended to serve as hubs at different points in time: Atlanta Peachtree Station (our current and only passenger rail station), Atlanta Union Station, and Atlanta Terminal Station.
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Atlanta Peachtree Station
Metro Atlanta's only passenger rail station today is Peachtree Station, also known as Brookwood. Served since 1979 by just 2 daily trains making up Amtrak's long-distance Crescent service from New York to New Orleans, Peachtree Station was originally built by the Southern Railway in 1918 as a secondary stop for its ~16 daily trains to and from Charlotte and points in between. It was effectively a pit stop for these trains en route to and from the much larger Atlanta Terminal Station.
Today, Peachtree Station remains largely the same as it was a century ago. Meanwhile, decades of urbanization and freeway construction, along with the lack a MARTA Rail connection likely preclude any future expansion of the station.
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Atlanta Union Station
As Atlanta's first passenger rail station dating back to 1853, Union Station was rebuilt and slightly relocated twice in its 120-year history. Its final iteration, shown here, was completed in 1930 across from what is now the Five Points MARTA station. In its peak, Union Station was served by 30-40 daily passenger trains and hosted the Georgia Railroad; Louisville & Nashville Railroad; and Nashville, Chattanooga, & St Louis Railway.
It was regrettably demolished in 1972, its footprint yet to be redeveloped. A few remnants of its former platforms still exist under the CNN Parking Deck in Downtown Atlanta.
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Atlanta Terminal Station
Built by the Southern Railway over 60 years after the first Union Station, Atlanta Terminal Station quickly became Atlanta's signature rail terminal upon its opening in 1905. Terminal Station was served by a whopping 90 trains per day in its peak. In addition to the Southern, Terminal Station also hosted the Atlanta & West Point Railroad; Atlanta, Birmingham, & Coast Railroad; Central of Georgia Railway; and Seaboard Air Line Railway.
Like Union, it was also demolished in 1972, its magnificent train hall replaced with the Richard B. Russell Federal Building that still stands in Downtown Atlanta. Its platform footprint has since never been redeveloped, though the last remnants of its platforms were not removed until 2018.
Existing Passenger Rail
Today, the Atlanta Region is served by just one passenger rail service: Amtrak's Crescent. Operating two trains through the Region daily between New York and New Orleans (one per direction), the Crescent is a long-distance train that completes its one-way journey in about 30 hours.
The current routing of the Crescent does not go through Downtown Atlanta as one might expect. Instead, the only station it serves in the Region is , about 3 miles north of Downtown Atlanta.
Passenger Rail At Its Peak
Compare the Region's existing passenger rail network with that of exactly one century ago, and we arrive at the peak of passenger rail in the US. The next two maps show what the Region's passenger rail network looked in and around 1923, with solid lines denoting still-active railroad corridors and dashed lines indicating inactive and/or abandoned corridors today.
Long Distance Trains
Shown in light purple are the 30 long-distance passenger trains per day that once connected Atlanta with major cities across the Northeast, Midwest, South, and Florida.
Long-distance trains were typically operated as partnerships between multiple railroad companies and featured premium amenities, limited stops between major cities, and distinctive names—names like the Crescent, Piedmont Limited, Silver Comet, Southland, Dixie Flyer, Royal Palm, and more.
Local Trains
Long-distance passenger trains were just the tip of the iceberg for the Atlanta Region a century ago. Shown in dark purple in this map is the dense web of 90 local passenger trains that once provided direct service between Atlanta and nearby cities and towns across the Southeast.
Local trains were typically operated by single railroad companies and tended to stop much more frequently than long-distance trains. They were usually unnamed services, designated by numbers instead, simply because of how commonplace they were.
The Railroads that Became Norfolk Southern
Norfolk Southern was formed in 1982 by the merger of the Norfolk & Western (N&W) Railway with the Southern Railway. While the N&W did not have a presence in the Atlanta Region, the Southern had a massive and storied presence, having been assembled and headquartered in Atlanta since 1894.
Thus, while that particular merger did not have a major effect on the Region's railroad network, an earlier 1963 acquisition of the Central of Georgia (CoG) Railway by the Southern did. It is these two predecessors to Norfolk Southern—the Southern and the Central of Georgia—that had a significant presence in the Region a century ago.
The Southern Railway
The Southern Railway had by far the largest passenger rail presence of any railroad in the Region, accounting for 48 passenger trains per day—30 local and 18 long-distance. It was also the Southern that built and owned Atlanta's famed Terminal Station from 1905 until its demolition in 1972. This map shows the Southern's local trains from Atlanta, all of which served Atlanta Terminal Station.
In its heyday, the Southern operated six mainlines in the Atlanta Region, four of which continue to be active and some of the busiest in the modern NS railroad network. Those still-active mainlines connect Atlanta with Greenville (the ), Macon (the), Birmingham (the), and Chattanooga (the); while mostly inactive mainlines at one time connected Atlanta to Columbus and Fort Valley.
The Central of Georgia Railway
The Central of Georgia (CoG) Railway was the Region's second largest passenger rail operator, accounting for 28 trains per day—24 local and 4 long-distance—between Atlanta Terminal Station and Savannah, Macon, Albany, and Columbus; and between Griffin and Chattanooga. The CoG was especially notable because it provided the Region's only "commuter" rail service a century ago, operating up to 10 trains daily between Atlanta and Jonesboro.
The CoG's primary mainline in Atlanta extended from Downtown Atlanta to Macon (the current ), while two secondary mainlines passed through Coweta County near Newnan, connecting its Atlanta-Macon mainline to Chattanooga and Columbus. All three of these mainlines are still owned by Norfolk Southern, but generally tend to be significantly less busy than the Southern mainlines today or even abandoned entirely.
The Railroads that Became CSX
Similar to NS, CSX was formed in 1980 by the merger of the Chessie System and Seaboard Coast Line Industries, with the Seaboard by then having a major presence in the Atlanta Region.
However, the Seaboard by 1980 had amassed what was in 1923 the six separate passenger rail operators in the Region not named Southern or Central of Georgia. Those six railroads were the:
- Seaboard Air Line Railway
- Georgia Railroad
- Atlanta, Birmingham, & Coast (AB&C) Railroad
- Atlanta & West Point (A&WP) Railroad
- Western & Atlantic (W&A) Railroad
- Louisville & Nashville (L&N) Railroad
The Seaboard Air Line Railway
The Seaboard Air Line Railway, or simply Seaboard, operated a mainline through the Atlanta Region between Birmingham and Hamlet, North Carolina. It operated 10 passenger trains per day in its peak—6 local trains mostly from Atlanta to points east, and 4 long-distance trains from Birmingham to Washington, DC. One of these long-distance trains, the Silver Comet, became synonymous with the corridor which now carries the Silver Comet Trail.
While the Seaboard's network tended to be centered around the East Coast and Florida, the Seaboard's is now owned by CSX and remains a fairly busy mainline with about 15 trains per day. Meanwhile, its has largely been abandoned or sold to a short line within the last 20-30 years, notably used to build the Silver Comet Trail.
The Georgia Railroad
The Georgia Railroad operated a mainline connecting Atlanta Union Station to Augusta. The second oldest railroad in the Atlanta Region, the Georgia Railroad opened in 1845 and joined the Western & Atlantic (W&A) Railroad at Downtown Atlanta's famed Zero-Mile Post. It operated 12 passenger trains per day in its peak—all local—between Atlanta and Augusta.
Today, the tends to be a very lightly used corridor carrying less than 5 trains per day. This is perhaps due to the presence of the parallel , which runs about 25 miles north of it and carries 15-20 trains per day.
The Atlanta, Birmingham, & Coast Railroad
The Atlanta, Birmingham, & Coast (AB&C) Railroad operated 4 passenger trains per day—all local—from Atlanta Terminal Station to Waycross and was the last major railroad to be built in the Atlanta Region. Like the Georgia Railroad, the AB&C did not carry any long-distance passenger trains.
The modern from Atlanta to Manchester remains a very active mainline for CSX, carrying about 20 trains per day.
The Atlanta & West Point Railroad
The Atlanta & West Point (A&WP) Railroad operated a mainline from Atlanta to Montgomery in conjunction with the Western Railway of Alabama called the West Point Route. While technically separate railroad companies, the two de-facto operated passenger service as one. In total, the West Point Route was served by 16 passenger trains per day—8 local and 8 long-distance—including the Crescent and all of the Southern's other long-distance trains between New York and New Orleans.
The modern from Atlanta to Montgomery remains a very active mainline for CSX, carrying about 15 trains per day.
The Nashville, Chattanooga, & St Louis Railway
The Nashville, Chattanooga, & St Louis (NC&StL) Railway operated on the well-known Western & Atlantic (W&A) Railroad Corridor. The W&A is unique in the Atlanta Region, as it is the only mainline owned by the State of Georgia rather than a private railroad company. However, since 1890 it had been under lease with the NC&StL, which operated 16 passenger trains—10 local and 6 long-distance—from Atlanta Union Station to Nashville and Memphis.
CSX ultimately inherited the long-term leasing arrangement first contracted by their predecessor the NC&StL from the State of Georgia. The modern from Atlanta to Chattanooga is still owned by the State and is CSX's busiest corridor in the Atlanta Region today, carrying about 30 trains per day.
The Louisville & Nashville Railroad
The Louisville & Nashville (L&N) Railroad operated a mainline in the Atlanta Region between Atlanta Union Station and Knoxville via Blue Ridge and Etowah, Tennessee.
This corridor has been infamous from the start for its tight curves and steep grades, two factors that led the L&N to build a parallel but much more streamlined corridor from Cartersville to Etowah, about 20 miles west, in the early 1900s. However, the L&N continued to operate 8 passenger trains per day—4 local and 4 long-distance—between Atlanta Union Station and Knoxville, using the W&A Mainline for last-mile connectivity to Atlanta.
These factors all contributed to CSX's decision in 1986 to sell off the corridor between Marietta and Etowah. Today, the portion from Marietta to Tate is owned by the short line , while GDOT owns everything north of Tate under an operating agreement with the GNRR. GDOT also operates the Blue Ridge Scenic Railway, a tourist train, on the former L&N Mainline from Blue Ridge north to McCaysville.
The Railroads and Existing Town Centers
The Atlanta Region's passenger rail network in its peak was dense and far-reaching, but it was also deeply engrained in how the Region grew and developed from its founding.
As it turns out, 82 percent of the Region's existing town centers lie within a half-mile of an existing or former railroad corridor (as defined by the Atlanta Regional Commission). Most of these town centers are historic downtown areas literally built on the railroads, often with historic depots that at one time anchored stations within them.
As shown in this map, there is a very strong correlation between placement of the Region's town centers with existing and former railroad corridors. The ATL Trains Vision seeks to capitalize on its proximity to existing downtown centers, strategically placing stations in historic built-up areas that once anchored most cities and towns across the Region.