I hear that the ACL Station at Gainesville is to be made into a multimodal passenger facility although the tracks are gone! Anyone have details?

-- Roy Bower (RoyPBower@prodigy.net), October 02, 1998

Answers

The former ACL station in Gainesville was converted into the G-ville facility of Santa Fe Community College. The conversion was so complete that,except for a bit of the origional brickwork,almost nothing recognizable remains of the former station.However,none of the station structure was removed,except for track,platforms,etc.,and the conversion job was first rate. Two photos presently hang in the bldg, taken circa 1969, showing the station as built.

-- Paul Coe (paul_coe@yahoo.com), December 16, 2000.

That sounds similar to what they just finished up here in Ocala. The city got a grant to refurbish the train station under the auspices of "intermodal" transportation enhancement. In this case, intermodal refers to rail (Amtrak), intercity bus (Greyhound), intracity bus (SunTran), cabs, and regular cars.

My guess is that Amtrak will "serve" this Gainesville facility with a shuttle bus to Hawthorne or some other station where the trains actually stop. Your local transit authority will probably stop there (if they don't already). Provisions may be made for other modes as well.

Hope this helps.

-- Brian Hancher (briant@atlantic.net), January 26, 1999.