mybodyismyown

I used the Atlanta Amtrak station for a recent trip to Georgia and wanted to pass along a few ideas.

First, you can rent a car from the Enterprise Howell Mill Road location, and they'll pick you up and drop you off at the station. The Enterprise location is also only a $10 cab ride away from Amtrak, so if you get caught in Atlanta traffic like I did and miss the Enterprise closing time of 6pm, you can drop the keys in the slot and take a cab back to Amtrak. Don't forget to do the Amtrak triple miles promotion with Enterprise, code: AMGR3XD

Second, the station itself is no fun. It's cramped, usually crowded, has no wi-fi, and has a few sad vending machines for food service. I left my bags with the baggage office at the station (fee $3) and walked down the street. When you come out of the station, turn left and walk down Peachtree. Two blocks down, cross the street to find Fig Jam - a beautiful restaurant with great food and free wifi. They got me in and out in 30 minutes with no fuss. This is a much better place to wait than the ATL Amtrak station.


I had a fantastic ride on the Crescent, and you will too. Enjoy!

cmtomlin

Great advice! Atlanta's station (like many others), is a poor location, and has one of the worst pick up & drop off areas in the system. I would hope there is a better future for a combined station with the Atlanta Transit system.

There is also a Kroger's across the street for last second munchies!

byronczimmer

On a recent trip to Atlanta (southbound), when we arrived (on a Saturday) there were long delays in getting checked baggage off the train.

I opted to take a cab to the Enterprise immediately and wait there for them to open, rather than wrestle with my baggage into the cab and at the rental agency.

Good thing too, we were first in line for a car and when I walked the parking lot behind the building to see what we'd get, I noticed a distinct lack of vehicles. Turns out they hadn't gotten a single return the previous night (they were all extended) and an impromptu 'order of arrival' list was written, with my name at the top. An hour after opening, someone finally dropped off a car and since we'd rented to that class, it was ours. We drove back to the station, collected our checked baggage from an empty (except for the attendants) station and were on our way.

When we returned the vehicle a few days later, it was the same attendant, and he said he finally got cars for everyone who was waiting just before they closed - if we hadn't bailed we would have been waiting quite a while and blown the day in an Enterprise lobby.

Amtrak lets you pick up your luggage up to 24 hours after it arrives with no charge. Take advantage of that!

Humbird

Has the postage size parking lot at the train station open again? The last time I was there it was closed for renovations.

alanh

Yeah, this station really needs work. There's only one elevator, which is used for both passengers and checked luggage. The last time I arrived there, there was a very long wait for the elevator because the station staff hadn't unlocked it. I understand they don't want people going down to the track early, but they should at least be prompt in letting arriving passengers out. A lot were elderly and though they were going to have to climb the stairs.

Daze

Has anyone actually had the Amtrak points post from Enterprise?

GoAmtrak

In my case, yes, always. Some discussion here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/amtra...ar-rental.html

phillystudent

My points (rental @Atlanta Enterprise was in 3rd week of March) finally went and posted 2 days ago, in case that helps anyone come up with a benchmark.

paytonc

Agreed: there's only one elevator between the station and the platform, and they use it first to get pax off, and then ferry up the luggage one cartload at a time, and then they allow you to reclaim. This process takes forever; I think it was the better part of an hour in my case.

I'm surprised that the station is so far from downtown in a city built around the rails-- but it's not far from Midtown, which is a livelier neighborhood anyways.

ibrandsguest

The current station was a Southern Railway suburban stop. There were several large train stations downtown, but they've all been demolished.

jackal

As an update to that thread (I'll post here to avoid bumping that older thread), I've rented Enterprise cars several more times since then and have always had my AGR points post.

OTOH, I just discovered that Enterprise has a fairly decent discount with USAA, and in the future, the amount saved by using the USAA discount is worth more than the points. Will probably just do that in the future. (You can't use a discount code and still earn triple AGR points, although I think you can still earn the regular, non-triple AGR points when using a discount code.)

RatherBeOnATrain

That Krogers closed 2 or 3 years ago.

Humbird

Your location in your profile is shown as ATL. Would you know the answer to post #4? I received some useful information on this thread but still do not know the answer to my inquiry!

4now

I took the train yesterday, hoping for triple points. Train was not quite as crowded as I expected.
Checked on the Kroger, in the hopes that some other market or drug store had moved in; but no such luck. bummer.
Locals are well advised to use the metro transit system(MARTA) to get to the station. Parking lot was closed; and I think that will probably be permanent. Also noticed that I did not see any waiting taxicabs. bummer. bring the cellphone.

paytonc

Per local media reports, the parking lot is permanently closed due to structural problems. A public-private partnership has been formed to develop a new multimodal station next to where Terminal station was downtown.