Plans are underway to lengthen Anniston’s Amtrak station train platform, and with that comes the potential for passengers to bring along bicycles, Anniston Mayor Vaughn Stewart said Friday.

Greg White, chairman of the Southern Rail Commission, said at a meeting of that body in Anniston on Friday that within a few weeks the federal government will announce whether Anniston will get a grant to help pay for that platform extension.

Stewart said that Amtrak suggested the city extend the platform by 400 feet so that the rail company’s Crescent line can load and unload passengers without moving the train incrementally to do so.

Even if that extension comes to be, the city will still have to persuade Amtrak to allow passengers to bring their bicycles with them, Stewart said, but Amtrak has expressed an interest in allowing just that. Because the train service runs between New York and New Orleans, local officials envision a broad usage by bicyclists.

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