# Jacksonville, FL Station rental cars?



## Rex (Jan 4, 2007)

Greetings all-

Wondering if anyone can suggest rental cars at JAX. I'm wondering if there are any in-station (probably not) or close by. The closer the better, since I'm travelling with my father-in-law who is disabled.

Many thanks.

RM


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## Rafi (Jan 4, 2007)

Rex said:


> Greetings all-
> Wondering if anyone can suggest rental cars at JAX. I'm wondering if there are any in-station (probably not) or close by. The closer the better, since I'm travelling with my father-in-law who is disabled.
> 
> Many thanks.
> ...


As long as you don't need to pick up on a Sunday, the Hertz Local Edition provides pick-up service from the Jacksonville Amtrak station. Here's the info from the Hertz website; a call to the actual location is probably in order, just to make sure you're clear on how it works:



> Jacksonville Amtrak3570 Clifford Lane
> 
> Jacksonville, Florida 32205
> 
> ...


-Rafi


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## Superliner Diner (Jan 4, 2007)

I've also seen reports where people took a taxi over to Jacksonville International Airport, where there of course is a selection of car rental companies. Both situated well north of the city, the train station and airport are not that far away from one another.


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## Foodman53 (Jan 5, 2007)

The JAX Amtrak Station and Jacksonville International Airport are, at minimum, 15 road miles apart.......so, if Hertz Local Edition is willing to pick you up....their location on Cassat Ave is somewhat closer than the airport!!

Enterprise also has a Cassat Ave location...as well as a North Main Street location, that are reasonably close to the airport....and, if they'll "pick you Up"...Great!!

From the "Florida Funnel"

Foodman53


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## Foodman53 (Jan 5, 2007)

Correction, I meant to say...."reasonably close to the Amtrak Station"

Also, Enterprise's location on Water Street may indeed be in the CSX building, if my address recollection is right....that may be the actual closest location.

Hope this helps!!

From the "Florida Funnel"

Foodman53


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## Chatter163 (Jan 5, 2007)

1: Start out at airport going NORTHWEST on YANKEE CLIPPER DR toward THOMAS IMESON AVE. 0.1 miles

2: Turn SLIGHT RIGHT toward ARRIVING FLIGHTS / DEPARTING FLIGHTS. 0.6 miles

3: Turn SLIGHT LEFT onto DIXIE CLIPPER DR. 0.7 miles

4: Turn SLIGHT RIGHT onto SERVICE RD. 0.3 miles

5: Turn SLIGHT RIGHT onto INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT BLVD. 1.9 miles

6: Merge onto I-295 S toward I-10. 5.7 miles

7: Merge onto US-1 S / US-23 S / NEW KINGS RD / FL-15 S via EXIT 28A toward JACKSONVILLE. 3.8 miles

8: Turn RIGHT onto CLIFFORD LN. 0.2 miles

9: End at Amtrak:

3570 Clifford Ln, Jacksonville, FL 32209, US

*Total Est. Time: 20 minutes Total Est. Distance: 13.74 miles *


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## Donnie (Jan 7, 2007)

My experience with Jacksonville Amtrak is that it is not close to anything. It is not a downtown location, it is about halfway between downtoan and the airport. Plus:There are frequent city busses that come into the station parking lot, but as is the case with most tourists, I had no idea where any of them went, and it is hard to figure out a local transit system unless you live there and use it all the time.

Negative: The area of the station is seedy, and while there are a few commercial establishments nearby such as a couple of run down motels, one would not want to be in that area on foot. It is a fairly long walk just to the main highway, and then it is miles to anywhere. At the time, rental car companies were all located at the airport, and there are many choices of decent accomodations on the access road to the airport. Afterall, doesn't everyone fly these days, even on trips of only 200 miles?

Taxi's are at the station when the trains come in, but not for long. If you don't get one right away, figure on a call and a wait for one to show up. As previous posters have pointed out, if you can arrive during business hours, various rental agencies will pick you up. But after business hours, you are going to need a cell phone (to call the taxi), the name of the taxi company in advance (no phone books at the Amtrak station), advance reservations at the airport, and of course be sure to call everybody and let them know if you are delayed.

This advice is pretty much true of anywhere you go, cell phone manditory, get your numbers lined up in advance, etc. However, on my last trip, I took my laptop with the Verizon card, and it bailed me out of some emergencies, as usually you can google whatever you need, get the numbers on the fly so to speak, and don't need so much advance planning. The one time I would absolutely positively count on Verizon, though, that would be the middle of the night arrival someplace that there is no coverage, or the Verizon system is out of bandwidth for some reason.


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## AmtrakWPK (Jan 7, 2007)

My wife and I did a day trip a couple of years ago from WPK to JAX and back where we were going to take Sunset Limited back south to WPK but when we got to JAX we found out it had lost another three+ hours of time. So instead of waiting for it to get there to eat dinner (and figuring the diner on the Sunset probably would have closed anyway by that time) we took the Jacksonville transit bus downtown, had a nice dinner, and then took the bus back to the Amtrak station. That bus stop is the beginning/ending stop for that particular line, so it sits there in the Amtrak station parking lot for quite awhile between runs, and the bus driver was very helpful in suggesting where we could go get dinner. There are bus schedules and maps in the JAX Amtrak station, and the JAX transit system has all that information online as well. While I haven't called them to inquire, most transit systems also have a phone number to call for information and help. The bus to downtown and back was nice, comfortable, had few passengers, didn't take too long, and I don't remember it as being expensive. While Sunset was still running all the way to Orlando we did that WPK-JAX-WPK daytrip probably close to a dozen times, but that one time was the only one where we actually had enough time that we felt comfortable taking the bus downtown and back. Another possibility for information would be to call the JAX Amtrak station and ask. Those folks have always been very helpful to Amtrak passengers looking for local JAX information. You just have to catch them when they don't have customers they are trying to sell tickets to at the time. One of the most useful tools I have come up with when I am trying to figure out bus routes and match them with destinations within a city is to have a local city map, and use different colored highlighters to outline the bus routes onto the map. That puts the bus route into perspective and as a pundit once said, "it's much easier to visualize something when you can look at it".


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## AlanB (Jan 7, 2007)

I too have used that bus WPK and found it to be quite convienent. I rode it downtown, had lunch at the mall on the river, rode the monorail from end to end, and then returned to the Amtrak station to catch the Sunset also. Only I was catching it westbound to NOL, after having arrived into JAX on the Meteor.


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## Rex (Jan 8, 2007)

Just spoke with an employee from the Cassat Ave Hertz location. On Hertz's website, that location is advertised as "Jacksonville Amtrak".

I told her that I was departing on a Sunday and asked what my options were, since they were closed. She replied, "You can just leave the car at the Amtrak station".

Excellent. Booked the car right there.


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## Guest (May 28, 2007)

How far is the Jacksonville,Fl Amtrack station from the University of North Florida?


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## MrFSS (May 28, 2007)

Guest said:


> How far is the Jacksonville,Fl Amtrack station from the University of North Florida?


Try this *LINK*


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