More about trains, altho nothing about rental cars and train stations

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgian_(train)

You can really tell you are starting to understand a network when you look at it and go, Why Isn’t There a Link Here? And then you go, Was There Ever a Link Here? And you can think of some reasons why there might never have been, but they don’t seem super compelling because there were some pretty strong reasons _to_ have that link, but then there were later some even stronger reasons to NOT have that link.

Anyway. That’s the link, and the history on it.

For the future, however!

https://www.wrdw.com/2023/12/08/amtrak-looks-rail-link-augusta-atlanta-airport/

This doesn’t really do anything in terms of the Atlanta / Chicago connectivity, but it does propose some cross linking that could be awesome. I should go look at that full list of possible rail corridors.

Also mentioned in the article is the (freight) Blue Ridge Connector. Here is more about that:

https://www.porttechnology.org/news/gpa-provides-insights-into-blue-ridge-connector-project-plans/

OK _THIS_ one does involve train stations and rental cars and parking

So, you know, if you have had it it that, skip this one.

https://www.hsrail.org/brightline-florida/

I don’t really know anything about High Speed Rail Alliance, but this is there little More Of This Please page about Brightline. They list all the great things about it, but conspicuously do NOT mention the parking garages, the monthly parking passes, or the rental car agency in the parking garages open during the hours of service. Brightline interconnects well with Miami Airport (also not mentioned) and local commuter rail options as well, but still has its own parking garage and its own rental car operation (even tho this would probably be one of the easiest opportunities to mooch off the airport one). In Orlando, it _does_ mooch off the airport’s garages and rental car operations.

I’m increasingly convinced that planners, advocates and other policy types around rail really have absolutely no clue how much they are harming their own cause by being so opposed to private vehicle connectivity to rail.

Hilariously, the HSRA page has the Brightline picture displaying a bike hanging in a passenger car. They banned bikes sytem-wide last September.