I have enjoyed reading the railroad series, but am saddened that it is all in reference to the past.
It is a shame that Chattanooga, known as the Choo Choo city, with such a rich railroad history, has no trains running to and from the city, or any cross-town commuter rails. all we have left are museums and memories.
John Fricke
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Aw come on, John Fricke, you sound so gloomy and depressing. Why not take a ride on the trains at the Railroad Museum, or visit the Chattanooga Choo Choo, the old Southern Railway terminal, and book a night with your significant other on those Pullman sleeper cars, browse all the great artworks for sale, buy some Civil War antiques and curios in the little shops, admire the great architecture, have a great dinner of barbeque ribs with all the fixings at the Station House, as you listen to the house band serenade ya….with the nostalgic history of a time gone by. Glenn Miller’s band playing the Chattanooga Shoe Shine boy….on the Ponce de Leon train, pulling into the station, from Cincinnati, Ohio.
I would hate to think those old coal- burning smokers were still running with regularity today, like they were in the past, with all the problems we got with smog and my COPD in today’s modern world.
Donald Woods
Knoxville
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Mr. Wood, your COPD is regrettable, but I totally agree with John Fricke. In a city where the local airport must be subsidized by the city, where Chattanooga is a hub for some of the largest trucking companies in the country, and having grown up riding the country on Pullman cars I also think it is a pity Chattanooga has no passenger rail service. This is not nostalgia waxing but an honest curiosity as to why. The coal-fired power plant(s) that supply Knoxville with the majority of your electricity have more to do with your COPD that a few dozen trains departing Chattanooga. And modern locomotives have kept pace with air pollution standards unlike the 20-year-old beater likely in your garage.
The cost-per-mile in trains exceeds most other forms of transportation. The comfort is only surpassed by cruise ships. The only thing missing is the rush to get where you’re going and I’m not certain that is such a bad thing. I am unsure if Amtrak is still subsidized by the Feds, but if Chickamauga Dam’s new lock can be subsidized, getting a few feeder rails installed in Chattanooga shouldn’t be that big of a deal. By the way, Mr. Wood, the air quality inside a passenger train will far exceed that inside any closed-ventilation system aboard a modern jet or at any airport I can think of.
David D. Fihn
Hixson
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I agree. I have often wondered why a city so ubiquitously associated with trains has no commuter rail lines to/from the city. My mother has memories of picking passengers up at the station when she was a child and I can only imagine what that must have been like.
I would love to see Chattanooga with an Amtrak station like other cities in the Southeast have (Atlanta, Birmingham, etc). I am currently planning a group trip to New Orleans in August and we are taking the train from Birmingham because it is cost-effective (less than $100 per person round-trip). Everyone thinks it will be fun, and is less of a hassle than driving or flying.
I only wish we could leave from Chattanooga instead of Birmingham. That would simplify the process even further.
Holly Tallant