I’m talking about the Amtrak Crescent line, passing through Atlanta on its way from NYC to New Orleans.

There is approximately one station serving the entire 6.5 million metro area population, and it’s a tiny little thing that used to be a commuter stop on the way to the big station downtown, before that closed and was torn down. We have gas stations around here whose convenience stores have more square footage (and I’m not even talking about Buc-ee’s).

Also, I say “approximately” because the next station up the line, 50 miles away in Gainesville, is arguably still in metro Atlanta by some measures. That’s how bad the sprawl is!

Both are not useful for commuters so who is this daily train for?

Considering that it is both slower and more expensive than flying, the best answer I can come up with is “nobody.”

Atlanta doesn’t have any commuter rail at all. They’ve talked for years about building some, but there are no firm plans for it. Like I said in my previous comment, we do have a subway, but it only barely touches the inner suburbs. The vast majority of people commute by car, and most of the rest drive to large park-and-ride lots at the stations at the extremities of the subway lines.

Just for some perspective, Atlanta’s original name was “Terminus” because the entire reason for its existence used to be the railroad. That’s how far rail around here, and the US in general, has fallen.