Home > Business Insider > Archives > 2008 > June > 15
Sunday, June 15, 2008
At last, Gov. Perdue on board for commuter rail
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
What an amazing change.
After six years of inaction on transit, Gov. Sonny Perdue surprised the state when he pledged his full support for a pilot commuter rail line from Atlanta to Lovejoy and Griffin, as well as for a substantial increase in the state’s X-Press bus program.
So what happened? Why did the governor do a complete 180 and decide to take a leadership role on an issue that has been driving some people crazy?
That issue is traffic. That issue is a lack of state funding for transit. That issue is the limited options people have to get around in our region and state other than in a car.
Those are not new issues. Leaders in metro Atlanta have been pushing for transportation solutions, including commuter rail, for decades.
Until now, no amount of begging or pleading seemed to get Gov. Perdue’s attention, much less his leadership.
Yet, last Thursday, there was the governor holding a news conference with all the transportation players in his office, speaking words that regional and state leaders have wanted to hear throughout his administration.
“Let’s move out aggressively,” Perdue said. “Once I’ve made up my mind, I’m usually impatient.”
Why now?
The theories are numerous:
The arrival of $4 a gallon gas has been a tipping point for people to get out of their cars and seek whatever limited transit options exist;
The Get Georgia Moving Coalition, a powerful group of 60 entities statewide, exerting all its influence to make sure state leaders support new transportation funding;
The governor’s comfort level in the appointments of new state transportation leaders — Gena Abraham at the Georgia Department of Transportation and Dick Anderson at the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority;
Several strong DOT board members from outside the metro area who were laying out a business case for commuter rail, including Larry Walker and Bill Kulke;
The lack of leadership at the General Assembly, which led to political infighting and defeat of a bill that would have permitted regions to pass their own transportation funding proposals;
A commuter rail proposal for trains between Atlanta and Lovejoy that already had received federal funds and tentative support from the Norfolk-Southern railroad.
Those are all plausible theories that are not mutually exclusive.
But there are stories of key events that helped change the mindset of the governor and other state leaders.
In January, GDOT board members and other state transportation folks took a trip to Chicago, Boston and New York to see commuter rail in action.
On that trip, Kulke told fellow DOT board member Robert Brown: “We are 100 years behind.”
In March, the Transit Planning Board invited a group of regional leaders on a trip to Charlotte to see that city’s successful light rail projects.
The trip made an impression on many, including Anderson who was then newly appointed as GRTA’s executive director.
And in early May, the annual LINK trip — with more than 100 state and regional leaders — went to Denver, a city aggressively building transit throughout its metro area with funding from a sales tax passed by voters.
“Going there just after the defeat (of the transportation funding bill) made everybody more aware of what we could do if that bill had passed,” said attorney Doug Dillard. “Denver provided a model for us to take a regional approach on transportation solutions.”
The LINK delegation decided to take action. Last Wednesday, it passed a strongly worded resolution urging state leaders to “pass comprehensive transportation funding legislation to effectively address traffic congestion and additional transit.”
But the event that may have made the greatest difference happened about two months ago when Perdue stopped by the congressional office of U.S. Rep. David Scott, a Democrat who had served in the legislature with the governor.
The federal government years ago approved nearly $90 million for the Atlanta-Lovejoy commuter rail line, but the state had failed to move that project forward.
So now it was time for some straight talk.
“I told the governor, ‘Only you can move it forward at this point. If we don’t move it forward, it puts us in a difficult position,’ ” Scott said.
He said Georgia had “almost become a laughing stock” in Congress.
Given the traffic problems in metro Atlanta, the inaction by the state bewildered Scott’s colleagues in Congress who would have done anything to get that amount of federal funding for commuter rail.
“I told him, ‘If we don’t use it, we lose it,’ ” Scott said. He also explained that not drawing those federal dollars for commuter rail hurt Georgia’s ability to get funding for other transportation projects.
Scott said he also told Perdue this was his opportunity to create a legacy and help make Georgia a national leader on commuter rail.
He said the line would revitalize the corridor from Atlanta through Clayton County on to Griffin, reduce congestion and improve air quality.
“When he left my office, he told me, ‘David, I’m going to see what we can do as a result of our conversation,’ ” Scott said. “He left with a very good understanding of the issue.”
Maybe that was the moment Perdue decided he would finally take action to support commuter rail and more transit.
Maybe Perdue finally understood the true benefits.
He said at his news conference he was particularly impressed when he saw a graphic showing that one bus could remove 57 cars from our roads (those numbers are much higher for rail).
Maybe, as DOT board member Robert Brown said, it was a just confluence of events that came together “at the right time.”
Perhaps.
(I had hoped for this kind of leadership years ago, but it’s better to be late than never).
At long last, we finally are making tracks towards the future.
Permalink | Comments (15) | Post your comment | Categories: Column
Services »
