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If traveling from Florida northbound on a train on Sunday, Jacksonville, the city by the border with Georgia, is not the best place to visit the cafe car. No alcohol sales are permitted in Georgia on Sundays, so there is a rush in the 15 minutes between Jacksonville and the border to Georgia, resulting in exasperated staff, nervous customers, and babies who cry in such a tense energy. And the train crosses the border at around dinner time, so there are plenty who just want a snack or meal and who get caught up in the rush for alcohol.
@Brad_Rosenheim the fact that we still have blue laws in 2024 boggles my mind.
@alliecat @Brad_Rosenheim So just to be clear this is a county-level issue. It might be Amtrak policy to give up on the whole state because they don't know what county they're in at various times, but Sunday alcohol sales is legal according to Georgia state law, and it's commonplace in Atlanta. I don't remember this issue on the Crescent either (but I didn't actually buy beer and may have missed the announcement). But possibly that route doesn't go through blue law counties.
@Colinvparker @alliecat Ah, interesting. Yes, it would be hard to turn alcohol sales on and off by county, but I can also imagine enforcement would be non-existent. After all, those laws are to prevent townsfolk from getting drunk on the Lord's day, but no one on the train is going to be in those counties anyway (there are only two stops in Georgia(.
@Brad_Rosenheim @alliecat So, it could also be that this is some carryover from earlier more strict laws and Amtrak just didn't update it's rules since 2011. I can't even find a blue law or dry county that's plausibly in the path of the train.
@Colinvparker @Brad_Rosenheim @alliecat the blue law still exists little bit. Can't sell alcohol before noon‐ish. I think serving earlier than that requires selling more food than booze.
By dinner time there should be no issue