Jan 21, 2020

A new SOUTHERN AMTRAK Route????

Could it be in Alabama?
      Alabama used to have an Amtrak route that ran from Mobile to Huntsville with stops in Montgomery, Tuscaloosa and Birmingham
     The Montgomery station was near those silos downtown near the Riverfront.


     Now the only trains you see in the capital city are freight.

     And the new route? It will come near Alabama, but not a single inch of the route is IN Alabama. It will go from Nashville to Atlanta, with stops in Chattanooga, Murfreesboro and Tullahoma. 

The PointsGuy website has the story.

And speaking of rail--- and rail accidents---

The worst Alabama train wreck----also the worst Amtrak accident ever--- happened on September 22nd 1993. 

Amtrak's Sunset Limited, en route to Miami, jumped rails on a weakened bridge and plunged into Big Bayou Canot, near Mobile, killing 47 people.

Other terrible accidents:
January 6, 1853 –United States – A train carrying President-elect Franklin Pierce, his wife Jane and their son Benjamin derailed and toppled off an embankment near Andover, MA. Franklin and Jane suffered minor injuries, but their 11 year old son Benjamin was virtually decapitated and killed.

February 19, 1863 – United StatesChunky Creek Train Wreck of 1863 - A Mississippi Southern train headed for the battlefield at Vicksburg, where the Confederate forces are in desperate need of reinforcements in the defense of the city against the assault of Sherman and the Union Army, derails on a damaged bridge and falls into an icy creek. At least 40 passengers killed, others drowned, some rescued from the water by soldiers of the First Battalion of Choctaw Indians, stationed nearby.

July 15, 1864 – United StatesShohola train wreck - An Erie Railroad passenger train carrying Confederate prisoners-of-war is in a head-on collision with a coal train near Shohola, Pennsylvania due to a dispatcher's error. Between 60 and 72 people are killed (official toll is 65 killed).


Other earlier train accidents with great loss of life are HERE


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