ARC, city launch efforts to find best site for new Amtrak hub

In a perfect world, where would an upgraded, larger, and more connected intercity Amtrak rail station be located in Atlanta? A new study seeks to find out—and input from regular Atlantans could help provide the answer. 

The Atlanta Regional Commission and City of Atlanta have partnered on a new initiative called the Passenger Rail Station Alternatives Study that seeks to pinpoint the best site around downtown for Amtrak to situate the new rail hub it’s expressed interest in building. 

The study, which formally launched last week with a stakeholder engagement meeting, seeks to find a location that offers “improved customer service, ADA-accessibility, and multimodal connections for rail travelers,” per ARC officials. 

A map provided today by ARC indicates the study area covers downtown from North Avenue down to Memorial Drive, and from Vine City in the west to Jackson Street in Old Fourth Ward, Piedmont Avenue, and other points in the east. 

The localized study comes as both Amtrak and the Georgia Department of Transportation have begun analyzing potential passenger rail expansion from Atlanta to Savanah and other regional cities, such as Charlotte and Nashville. 

Amtrak’s general and legislative annual report for fiscal year 2025 included a request for nearly $30 million in federal funding to secure a development site for a new intercity rail hub in Atlanta—and to start the process of building it. Amtrak officials haven’t divulged where the Atlanta hub could be built, but a company report last year noted some of the land in question is “at imminent risk of development.” The location was referred to only vaguely as being in downtown Atlanta. The station could cost hundreds of millions of dollars and, eventually, help reestablish the city as the important rail hub it historically was, all part of Amtrak’s national growth spurt and hiring plans. 

Last summer, Amtrak officials wrote to Urbanize Atlanta the corporation was “excited to work with local, state, federal, and railroad partners to help secure a site for an improved and expanded Amtrak station in Atlanta.” 

As ARC officials note this week, the current Atlanta Amtrak Station where Midtown meets Buckhead is too small, non-ADA complaint, and too far (roughly a mile) from the nearest MARTA station, with few services in the vicinity. The station’s Crescent Line—a rail link between New Orleans, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and New York City—logs about 78,000 passengers per year, though just one southbound train leaves in the morning, and one other heads northbound overnight. 

Amtrak is working to bring Atlanta’s station and all others into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act in the next two years, according to ARC officials. 

In 2022, the Atlanta City Council passed a resolution supporting a new Amtrak station, and last year the council formally requested that ARC conduct a study to pinpoint the optimal location.  

Public input for the study is being accepted on ARC’s website between now and October. That includes a survey and an interactive map that allows visitors to mark their preferred locations for the Amtrak hub. 

According to ARC officials, a draft plan for the Amtrak station site will be released in December. The ARC Board is expected to formally approve that plan in early 2026.

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