For high-speed rail, Georgia may not be on fast track

News of Atlanta’s eligibility to win big federal funds for high-speed rail is spreading bittersweet excitement among Atlanta officials.

In Georgia, so little work has been done on potential projects that when Washington starts awarding grants for a high-speed rail network, officials here are just hoping to win more studies.

Compare that with North Carolina, where big bucks may end up funding construction of actual train lines that lead to Washington. Georgia and North Carolina each have legs of the same potential rail line.

“Let’s face it, our Department of Transportation has for years been primarily a department of highways,” said Chick Krautler, director of the Atlanta Regional Commission.

President Barack Obama announced plans Thursday for a national high-speed rail network that would include lines crisscrossing Georgia connected through a hub in Atlanta.

The plan would create a European-like system with trains that could run at more than 100 mph. Obama is pledging $8 billion toward development of the system as part of the economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Atlanta lies on two of the 10 potential corridors. One leads from Washington through Charlotte and Atlanta, then south to Jacksonville. The other would go west from Atlanta to New Orleans and Houston.

Krautler has visions of Atlantans using high-speed rail as a faster alternative to everything from short flights and vacation drives to freight hauling.

“On a comfortable train that would get me there in less time than it would take to drive, I could get to do a lot of work. It’s relaxing. And I think people would use it both as a means for personal travel but also as business travel.”

Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce President Sam Williams agreed.

“It’s a fantastic opportunity for Atlanta,” Williams said. The chamber has been pushing the concept, he said, and years ago it put together a coalition of cities in the corridors.

On the other hand, he said: “Virginia and North Carolina are way, way ahead of us, probably by 20 years. I have been very disappointed that GDOT has not gotten onto this thing a lot sooner. But South Carolina’s worse off than we are. I think this is a great shot in the arm to rejuvenate Georgia and South Carolina.”

State leaders have been cool toward rail. Georgia is in danger of losing $83 million in federal funds for a commuter rail to Lovejoy that has sat unspent for lack of local matching funds or operating money. MARTA is the only major transit system that receives no significant sustained state funding.

Georgia leaders seemed more in tune with the Bush administration’s vision, which focused on toll roads and private investment. Georgia fought for and won a $110 million grant to put tolls on I-85 carpool lanes in Gwinnett County. The tolls are expected to be operational in a couple of years.

Erik Steavens, director of the Georgia DOT’s Intermodal Division, said the DOT was turning around, as shown by the elevation of rail programs to a division and his own hiring last year.

“My role is to try to make sure we don’t repeat issues we had in the past, and be an advocate for those types of programs,” he said.

Steavens is also part of an effort to plan high-speed rail here, but the most advanced project would run from Atlanta to Chattanooga, not as part of the federally designated corridors. He said Georgia hopes to persuade Washington to include that line later.

Rumblings for weeks that such an announcement was coming have stirred trepidation that Georgia ought to wake up. At a transportation meeting last month, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin said she was concerned about reports that money could finally be arriving for high-speed rail but Atlanta wouldn’t be at the starting post.

“Most 21st-century plans assume rail – light rail, heavy rail, high-speed rail,” Franklin said. “And it seems to me that if we are going to opt out of that model it ought to be a conscious effort, not just, we forgot to have a good discussion.”