Trip routing St Louis to Atlanta

[Shelly]

Hi all. I'm looking for a little help. I am planning a trip from St Louis to Atlanta, and was hoping to take Amtrak. However, the only way to get there from here is to go up to Chicago, and then catch the Crescent down to Atlanta. Does anyone else have any suggestions for a different route? I was trying to avoid going north to go south ;-). I'm willing to drive a ways to meet up with the train elsewhere, if there are any suggestions.

Thanks in advance for any help....

 

[Trogdor]

Sadly, Amtrak's limited route network doesn't provide too many opportunities to go to the southeast from the midwest.

Amtrak's only train to Atlanta is the Crescent, which runs daily between New York and New Orleans (though the route is currently offering only limited service to New Orleans because of trackwork, but it still runs daily between New York and Atlanta).

In general, you would have two options:

1) The City of New Orleans, which operates daily between Chicago and New Orleans (there's also a connecting bus from St. Louis), spend the night in New Orleans, and take the Crescent the next day, or

2) Take a train from St. Louis to Chicago, then either the Cardinal or Capitol Limited to the east, then the Crescent. With the Capitol Limited, you'd transfer in Washington, DC; with the Cardinal, you'd transfer in Charlottesville, VA.

 

[PRR 60]

From St Louis to Atlanta there are two options, neither great: in fact both pretty poor.

One is to take the Texas Eagle out of St Louis at 830am north to Chicago, connect to the 535pm departure of the the Capital Limited overnight east to Washington, then the next afternoon take the Crescent overnight south to Atlanta for a morning arrival.

The other option is to take the Amtrak connecting bus east from St Louis at 11pm to Carbondale, then the City of New Orleans overnight to New Orleans with a afternoon arrival. Then after an overnight in New Orleans on your own, take the Crescent at 720am north to Atlanta for an evening arrival.

In my opinion: not a trip well set up for a train option. Sadly, not a great air trip either. With no low cost carrier on the route, fares are high. Fares Kansas City to Atlanta are half the price.

 

[Shelly]

Thanks! I was noticing those routes as well, but was hoping for something different. And, yes, I agree, the air routes aren't much better. Guess I'll figure something else out...

Thanks for the information!!

 

[Bill Haithcoat]

Here's another option no better than others, perhaps worse. Take the connecting bus from St. Louis to Carbondale, then the City of NOL from Carbondale to Memphis, then change to a bus or plane (if you can find a decent fare) from Memphis to ATL.

Nope,not very good, either. I have in fact made that ATl to MEM connection myself several times during the years but it was always in the context of a much longer trip--one in which the vast majority of my time was still spent on the train.(like going to the west coast via Chicago for example).

That eight hour bus ride from ATL to MEM is very long and boring. Of course one could revert to the Crescent at BHM(if it is operating due to track work problems). But that, too,makes the trip almost more hassle than it is worth.

Too bad the southeast is so cut off from the midwest. I grew up often riding on a train whcih left St. Louis about 4:30 p.m. traveled through Evansville, Nashville and Chattanooga and arrived ATl the next morning about 8.30. Same kind of schedule northbound. A train esp. designed for business people traveling durng the night, doing business during the day at their destination. That stopped in 1971.

Pleasant memories.