High-speed rail plan includes Ga.

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

In a meeting with transportation officials from around the country, Obama resurrected plans first developed in 1991 that would create a European-like rail system with trains that could run at more than 100 mph.

What’s different now is that the president is pledging $8 billion toward development of the system as part of the national economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and on Thursday announced plans to pump an additional $5 billion into it over the next five years.

“It’s one thing to have a plan. It’s another thing to have funding,” said Beverly Scott, chief executive of MARTA, who chairs the American Public Transportation Association. She was at the meeting with Obama in Washington and was excited by the announcement that she and other rail advocates have been seeking for years. “The … difference is that we’ve never had a president … who is focused on this like this president.”

Along with two Southeast corridors that would connect Florida and the Gulf Coast with Washington and the Northeast, other high-speed rail corridors would be built from the Great Lakes to California.

“What we need … is a smart transportation system equal to the needs of the 21st century,” Obama said, comparing the program to President Dwight Eisenhower’s 1950s interstate highway program.

Clogged highways cost the country $80 billion in lost productivity and wasted fuel and pump too much greenhouse gas into the air, he said, and airports are overburdened with increasing passenger loads.

Myriad hurdles and years of work remain before the first new high-speed train leaves the station. But even some of the harshest critics of Obama’s spending programs said that developing high-speed rail would be money well-spent —- if it was handled properly.

“We’ve got to do something [about] our congestion and traffic situations, especially in places like Atlanta,” said Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, a Republican from Coweta County who is on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Though he still wants to study the financial details, Westmoreland said, “I’m for it.”

Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) said he, too, was supportive, but was wary of whether high-speed rail could pay for itself.

“In principle, I’m supportive … but it has to be operated privately and without subsidies,” said Isakson, who is on the Senate’s transportation committee. “Projected ridership and fares have to be able to carry the costs of operation.”

Isakson also cautioned that $8 billion in economic stimulus funding Obama plans to spend was nothing compared with the total cost of a nationwide network.

Obama gave few details about how a high-speed rail system might be operated or when it might be operational.

Regional transportation groups would have to bid on the federal funds, and the Department of Transportation plans to begin awarding money for planning by the end of the year.

Georgia, which has been less than aggressive about high-speed rail in the past, is already far behind states like North Carolina and Virginia in planning for such systems, MARTA’s Scott and others said.

That could ultimately hurt the state when the federal government starts doling out money.

Recently, Georgia has put more momentum behind an Atlanta-Chattanooga corridor that isn’t included in Obama’s plans.

Georgia Department of Transportation board member David Doss, who chairs a steering committee dealing with the line, said what’s important is that Obama has made high-speed rail a major initiative.

“It is fixing to be a priority like it never has been before,” Doss said.

Staff writer Ariel Hart contributed to this article.

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WHERE THE TRAINS WOULD GO

Ten corridors the Obama administration had identified for possible high-speed rail projects:

> California corridor: Bay Area, Sacramento, Los Angeles, San Diego

> Pacific Northwest corridor: Eugene, Portland, Tacoma, Seattle, Vancouver British Columbia

> South Central corridor: Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Dallas/Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio, Little Rock

> Gulf Coast corridor: Houston, New Orleans, Mobile, Birmingham, ATLANTA

> Chicago hub network: Chicago, Milwaukee, Twin Cities, St. Louis, Kansas City, Detroit, Toledo, Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Louisville

> Florida corridor: Orlando, Tampa, Miami

> Southeast corridor: Washington, Richmond, Raleigh, Charlotte, ATLANTA, Macon, Columbia, Savannah, Jacksonville

> Keystone corridor: Philadelphia, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh

> Empire corridor: New York City, Albany, Buffalo

> Northern New England corridor: Boston, Montreal, Portland, Springfield, New Haven, Albany

—- Associated Press

 Associated Press 
PASSENGER RAIL UPGRADES IDENTIFIED 
The Obama administration designated 10 passenger rail corridors for possible high-speed rail projects on Thursday. Funding is to come from the $8 billion allocated in the economic stimulus package. 

Map of the U.S. locates the corridors.

Sources: Department of Transportation; Amtrak