Jacksonville station

Jacksonville, FL
The front of the station
General information
Location	3570 Clifford Lane Jacksonville, Florida United States
Coordinates	30.3661°N 81.72339°W / 30.3661; -81.72339
Owned by	Amtrak
Platforms	1 island platform, 1 side platform
Tracks	4 (2 station tracks and 2 house tracks)
Connections	Amtrak Thruway to Gainesville and Ocala JTA Bus: 3
Construction
Parking	Yes
Bicycle facilities	Yes
Accessible	Yes
Other information
Station code	Amtrak: JAX
History
Opened	1974
Passengers
FY 2023	64,038 (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
Future services Preceding station Amtrak Following station Palatka toward Miami Floridian Nov. 2024 Savannah toward Chicago
Location

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.

History

Viewed from the Champion in 1979

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. The Northside station saw eight trains daily upon opening, four in each direction. Those trains were the Silver Meteor, Silver Star, Champion, 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 was extended east from its New Orleans terminus all the way to Miami, 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, 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.

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. The bill passed the Senate Commerce Committee with bipartisan support, and was later rolled into President Biden's Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, 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.

External links

Media related to Jacksonville (Amtrak station) at Wikimedia Commons

• Jacksonville, FL – Amtrak
• Jacksonville, FL – Station history at Great American Stations (Amtrak)